Tweet
Ruth Reichl & I—Cancelled! Along with Gourmet…
I’m just in the weeds and feeling super-depressed right now, but I wanted to get this blog post up to let people know that Ruth Reichl has cancelled her upcoming book tour, so our event on Saturday at the Twin Cities Book Festival is off.
I’m not so much depressed about the event being cancelled, though that does bum me out, but the closing of Gourmet! So awful. I was hoping to get some organized thoughts on paper about this, but organized thought doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me this week, so here are my main thoughts:
Why did Gourmet close?
- The fact that, in the age of the Internet, information wants to be free—in terms of people not paying for it—but it also wants to be expensive—in terms of salaries, healthcare, and all that stuff being more costly than ever—just makes enterprises like Gourmet obsolete.
- Ink, paper, and postage cost so much that 980,000 elite food-interested subscribers are essentially meaningless.
- It’s the age of television, and the age of personality, and the future is all and only about people like Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, and Oprah, who are able to be popular in both.
- Big words and long paragraphs are out.
What have we lost?
- The sky. As a food writer, it’s hard to overestimate the significance of Gourmet. It was the place you’d get to write when you were real. I’ll never forget the excitement of doing my first Gourmet piece: I was still a kid living on crackers and riding a $5 bike; it was a piece commissioned at 400 words that I spent ten hours reporting and eventually ran at about 40 words (typical); but I was so thrilled, the moment was so full of promise, I felt like I had arrived, I was ordained, I was called, I was blessed from on high… That was Gourmet.
- The future. All my future dreams of food writing always involved me being big and smart and important enough that Gourmet would want more of me.
- The farthest vision. Every food writer and photographer in the country looked to Gourmet for evidence of what the best minds were thinking, and how they were doing it. It’s like all grad schools have been closed, leaving only the colleges.
Am I being overdramatic and hysterical? Probably. I’m writing this in the heat of emotion, but wanted to get this up so that no one shows up on Saturday and gets frustrated. But I also didn’t want to turn this into blogging about Gourmet week, so wanted to dump it into one post. I’m just heartbroken. The sky has fallen; not in the Chicken Little sense, but in the sense that the highest you can go is now lower. And yes, of course I’m part of the problem; the magazine I edit, the 350,000 circulation Real Food, is free in most markets, and certainly undercuts the price people are willing to pay for Gourmet. And no, I don’t know what to do with that.
Guess I won’t be seeing you Saturday…
Posted on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 in Permalink
Comments may be edited for length, clarity, or appropriateness.
Reader Comments:
I'm a musician and this must be what it would be like if the Chicago Symphony folded. I wasn't a subscriber but do see that this leaves a huge hole. My condolences. Please let us know if you think of something else to do on Saturday to properly memorialize Gourmet. What a bummer.
It bums me out that they did not have the courtesy to inform her of this decision before they announced it! It's bad enough to shut down this venue for really high quality writing, but its symptomatic of the way that the companies that own newspapers also put profits before news: they refuse to take the time to think creatively about how to change their business model because they just don't care about the content, only the "product."
But Ruth Reichl will now be able to write a really great book about her time at Conde Nast, and judging by the quality and success of her previous books, it will be a good read and she will stick it to some folks who probably deserve it.
I think that the fact that you have been able to put together a high quality food/dining/cooking publication that I can get at Lunds is fabulous. You have a sponsor that ensures stability. Why is that any different than something like City Pages, or another give-away weekly publication? At least I can read great food writing without having to put up with sex ads in the back.When I lived in the Bay Area, friends of mine worked hard to create a similar (although non-glossy) monthly print venue for good food and wine writing, and it was great while it lasted, but the marketing needs killed them.
Now if you could just get a good horoscope and some local cartoonists....?
Here's an interesting Gourmet obit/essay on the magazine industry from the editor of Cook's Illustrated (although calling the closing of one's competitor magazine "serendipitous" doesn't exactly constitute a tender farewell), for anyone who hasn't already seen it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/opinion/08kimball.html?ref=opinion
M.
dara: kate sullivan here... i was just thinking about your wonderful writing and went, where's dara? so i looked you up!!! and i see your writing is as yummy as ever! awesome. oh well, i hope you are well, dear. and i am guessing from your new last name that very belated congrats are in order! so, congrats! all the best, kate s.