Check out the empty offices of Gourmet magazine on Gawker – so depressing. I emailed my friend Neale Whitaker who is associate publisher of Australian Gourmet Traveller (published by ACP and edited beautifully by another friend – Anthea Loucas) to make sure all was OK there and this was his response. “The closure of Gourmet doesn’t affect ACP as Australian Gourmet Traveller is not associated with the US title. Having said that, it’s always sad to see a magazine close, especially an iconic one. The economic climate of the last twelve months has been a brutal place for magazines and I guess Gourmet is a high-profile casualty. I’m particularly sorry to see it close as I was Gourmet’s Australian correspondent for five years from 2000-2005. It’s been an influential and respected magazine under Ruth Reichl’s editorship and I’m sure it will be missed. Very sobering to think that an economy like the US can no longer sustain an upmarket food magazine.” I hope Australian magazines are able to weather the downturn. It’s felt like things were improving here in the States – but then you hear about things like this and I wonder what kind of a bubble I live in.
