Gourmet

» see gourmet.com as it lived, on the wayback machine

~ the goodbye ~

gourmet was the first us food monthly, launched in january 1941. i learned the name from ruth reichl profiles years after her editor tenure had already ended. in those days. in ankara in the 2000s a food-and-wine magazine with a 900,000 circulation base sat inside a us print-monthly economy that had no turkish parallel. what i knew of gourmet was second-hand, from other magazines writing about the reichl-era covers.

earle r. macausland launched gourmet out of new york city in january '41 as an independent food-and-wine monthly. the pitch was straightforward: no other us magazine covered cooking and restaurants together at that scale. macausland ran the title as owner-publisher for thirty-nine years and hired m.f.k. fisher and james beard early. after his death in 1980 the magazine floated for three years before condé nast completed the purchase in 1983.

condé nast held the property stable through the '80s and '90s. gail zweigenthal, who had been on staff for over two decades, took the editor chair in 1991. ruth reichl came in from her restaurant-critic post at the new york times to take over in january 1999.

the announcement in october 2009 landed hard on the us food-magazine world. si newhouse's condé nast held a media day on 5 october and told staff the november issue would be the last. that issue was already at the printers, distributed the same week. the reason cited was declining ad revenue and shifting food-media consumption. eighty-two staff lost jobs in the closure.

~ the chronicle ~

~ the macausland decades ~

earle r. macausland was a boston-born publisher who launched gourmet in january 1941 out of a small new york office. the debut issue landed in the middle of the war-rationing months and still built a subscription base fast. m.f.k. fisher wrote for the magazine from the mid-1940s. james beard joined by the late 1940s. macausland kept the editorial voice inside a narrow register: seasonal recipes and travel pieces built around a food theme.

by the 1970s gourmet was a stable prestige property that sat next to condé nast and hearst's monthlies on the newsstand but was still owned by the founder. macausland died in 1980. the estate held the title for three years before condé nast completed the purchase in 1983. gail zweigenthal took the editor chair in 1991 after two decades on staff.

~ the ruth reichl years ~

reichl came in january 1999 and pushed the magazine into a more essay-driven, more literary register. writers she brought in included david foster wallace, annie proulx, madhur jaffrey and posthumous work from laurie colwin's estate. anyway, the magazine won several james beard awards through her tenure and became the tone-setter for us food-writing prestige in the decade.

by 2009 the print rate base was around 950,000 to 980,000. still a big number for a food monthly. still, the ad revenue had cratered through the 2008 recession. food advertising as a category dropped sharply in the same window, condé nast's whole us portfolio was under review for the same reason.

~ the actual end ~

the 5 october '09 media day was quick. condé nast had commissioned mckinsey to review the whole us portfolio in the summer of 2009 and the review came back with several titles marked for closure. gourmet was one, alongside the closures of cookie and two condé nast bridal titles announced the same day. si newhouse jr signed off. reichl told her staff before the wider announcement went out.

the november 2009 issue was already in distribution when the closure hit. subscribers got that final issue as their last mailing. gourmet's website and archive were kept up under condé nast for a few years and then folded into epicurious.com, the recipe hub condé nast already ran. the food-monthly ad category kept softening for the next several years.

~ the next chapter ~

the gourmet trademark lapsed in 2021 after condé nast let the registration expire. in january 2026, five former food journalists relaunched the name as a worker-owned online newsletter on the ghost platform. anyway, that project is a separate object from the condé nast property. the print magazine ended in november '09 and has not returned.

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