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"We soon noticed Gourmet would repeat recipes every few years! Oh, well!" Southern Living has been doing this for years ...

You must be kidding. chick fil a loses hands down with no contest. They will not even put ketchup in pump dispensers. Their management in Royersford Pa. claim after talking to their consultants that the packets cost more and are more environmentally friendly. Yes that is right a unit volume of ketchup in a packet costs more than a unit volume of bulk ketchup. But wait if no one goes to open the inconvenient packet then the packets are cheaper because no one uses them due to the nuisance. The packet is environmentally friendly until opened. If the bulk ketchup is dispensed into the french fry pouch at McDonalds how is that environmentally unfreindly. Shame on the loser.

i have such abiding admiration for ruth reichl's writing, but the magazine just hasn't been all that great since gail zweigenthal left. i mostly just read it now for the sterns, but even their column hasn't been as lovely since they split up. oh, well. there's still saveur, which i have come to prefer.

What is going to happen to epicurious? Can someone find out? Hint Hint

Of course keep Bon Appétit open. It is the direction America is heading. We still are in a recession and if the recession ended tomorrow people's spending habits have now changed. Gourmet does not fit that model. I have been an avid reader of Gourmet but as I read it I always think wouldn't it be nice if I had the money to do this or make that or go here so at the end if each issue I am a little depressed. I wonder what will happen to their great televison program Gourmet Diary of a Foodie.

I do think it's sad that Gourmet is folding, but I haven't enjoyed it much in recent years. Some articles have seemed almost agressively political, which is an odd thing for me to complain about, since I enjoy politics and generally agreed with the view presented in any case. I guess I just don't like mixing politics and cooking.

And in the past year or so it's been all pretty pictures and not many practical recipes. I do realize that travel and restaurant reviews have always been a major focus, but it's seemed so much less accessible than in the past. I still remember the first issue I ever bought. It was from sometime in 1978, and showed a beautiful tropical beach from the air with gorgeous turquoise water. That magazine I will miss--the one that introduced me to gourmet cooking.

That front cover takes me back to my days in England, and the singing of the Boar's Head Carol in the place of its composition.
...Caput apri defero, reddens laudes Domino...

I, too, am disappointed that Conde Nast has chosen to shut down Gourmet rather than the far-inferior Bon Appetit. While I have been disappointed in Gourmet in recent years, it still surpasses BA in every respect. Guess I'll have to try Food & Wine or Saveur....

I spent over 25 years in magazine publishing. Subscribers, not to worry - by law, magazines have to offer a refund or another subscription of at least equal value to the unused portion of your subscription. However, most magazines will not emphasize the refund, or offer good deals on alternative subscriptions. One of the reasons why publishing groups fold unprofitable publications, rather than try to sell them, is to try to transfer the subs over to other magazines whose circulation is suffering and to whom new readers are increasingly expensive to acquire.

I was a Gourmet subscriber for many, many years, but dropped my sub about 10 years ago. The editorial in the last few years became less and less about food and food prep, and more about travel. And the articles focused more on fashionable destinations and dining - more on spas, celebrity oriented locals - the better to sell traditional Conde Nasty ad niches - cosmetics, fashion, jewelry. I suspect that Gourmet's editorial was crafted to be more attractive to these types of advertisers than actual food advertising, which tends to be less loyal to print and magazines.

When Conde Nast bought Gourmet, they immediately did away with its emphasis on using fresh ingredients - remember the few and far between mentions of "tinned chicken broth" as an alternative, etc.?, They abandoned the magazine's recipe format - including the measurements and ingredients within the preparation details, which was instituted to encourage experimentation. They initially pushed to make Gourmet a more upscale, but typical food magazine, and began including frozen ingredients, etc. The Gourmet I miss is the "real," independent magazine that was owned by a devoted small publishing company that stuck to the magazine's mission.

No word yet on what this means for Ruth Reichl, but I'm certain she won't be unemployed for long. Maybe (I hope) she'll have time to write more books. Wait, what am I talking about. . .I haven't even read her latest book (Not Becoming My Mother), but I will this weekend.

I'm positive the NYTimes will find space for her writing now and then, I'm sure NPR would welcome any bits and pieces from her, but I know a better way for us to get regular benefits from her talent and skills: Let's start a coup and install her as the head of the Food Network. Anyone with me?

I am heartsick at this. Purchased and subscribed to the magazine in the past and have just rediscovered it in the last few months. Any chance this is a trial balloon just to check reader/subscriber interest? I can't believe CN would let a vehicle with such great content just fade away.

This is awful news!!! Gourmet has been my favorite magazine for 20 years, since I was in college. I'm subscribed for several more years, since I just always signed up for a bunch more years when there was a good deal, since I assumed I'd subscribe in perpetuity (probably until death). I'm not concerned about any lost $, though, I just want Gourmet!! Is there any where to protest this? Maybe a rich person can buy it and fund it as a vanity project! To be honest, I never liked the rich person travel pieces, but accepted those since its subtitle positioned the magazine as being about food and leisure or food and travel or something (as I accept the wine part of Food and Wine even though I don't care about it). But the recipes were so great that I didn't care if I read none of the articles -- the magazine was still completely worth the subscription price.

In my opinion, it had become too much of a "lifestyle" mag heavy on ads disguised as content. It's sad to see it go, but the current incarnation is lame.