Conde Nast Destroys a Great Icon

Gourmet magazine, the magazine that virtually created America's food culture, is apparently going to be closed by Conde Nast due to a fall in ad sales.  I'm shocked and horrified.  Instead, Conde is keeping the decidedly mediocre Bon Appetit, which might be described as "things you can make your girlfriend for Valentine's Day without setting the kitchen on fire."  Conde may be making the right commercial choice--maybe America's food culture has slipped so far that there's no real reason to publish a magazine aimed at people who are willing to spend all day making a meal.  All I know is, when I go onto Epicurious, and I have a choice between a recipe from Gourmet and a recipe from Bon Appetit, I choose the former--and the few times I've violated this rule, I've always been disappointed with the results.

On the other hand, I'm happy to see that Conde is trimming down some of the overprofusion of bridal magazines, which all have the same wedding dress ads, and precious little else.