Club Speaker Loses Magazine: Gourmet Closes

Condé Nast is one of the big powerhouse magazine publishers in the world, home to GQ, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Glamour, The New Yorker, and many others. As of today, Conde Nast publishes several fewer titles, having given the axe to Cookie, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, and -- in a move that shocked the publishing and the foodie worlds -- Gourmet magazines. The move followed a review of the company by an outside consultant firm, McKinsey.

Ruth Reichl, editor of Gourmet since 1999, spoke at The Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley just last week, where she talked about some of the major trends in American cooking, such as healthier food and increased international influences.

But Reichl couldn't beat out a different trend in America, that of a precipitous drop in advertising revenue. Not all magazines are primarily supported by ads; some get more of their revenue from newsstand and subscription revenue. But advertising remains the lifeblood of most of the big glossies, and that's Condé Nast's field of play. It publishes magazines filled with high-priced ads from luxury goods and services companies around the world. And until recently, Condé Nast was famous (or infamous among its peers) for never deigning to discount ad space; if you wanted to advertise in its magazines, you paid full price. In return, the magazines were known for their high quality photography, printing, journalism -- and perks, such as limousines for editors. (If you have seen The September Issue, the new documentary about Vogue Editor Anna Wintour and her top staff, you get the idea.)

An informal survey by this writer suggests that advertising pages have begun to rebound from their lows of late spring and summer, but it will be some time before publishers are back in the black.

As for Ms. Reichl's future, it's not yet known, though it's still possible her fans will find her within the surviving Gourmet family. According to Advertising Age:

Conde Nast didn't have an answer Monday for the number of jobs that would be lost as a result of the moves, but the titles' mastheads suggest massive cuts are likely. Gourmet alone lists some 100 staffers, although the company will presumably keep some to help run Gourmet's books, TV and recipes activities, which will continue. It wasn't immediately clear whether Ms. Reichl or VP-publisher Nancy Berger Cardone will stay in some capacity or leave the company. Cookie's masthead numbers closer to 75.

-By John Zipperer
VP of Media & Editorial, Commonwealth Club of California

Watch the California Book Awards

The finest California authors of 2008 came out Thursday night, June 4, for The Commonwealth Club’s 78th Annual California Book Awards. Award recipients and finalists mingled, swapped writing tales, and enjoyed an evening of literature and elegance. The ceremony was marked by speeches from honorees August Kleinzahler (poetry), John Adams (nonfiction), and Adam Mansbach (fiction), as well as Ellen Klages (young adult), Rachel Kushner and David Vann (first fiction), Dan Bellm (poetry), and Deanne Stillman (nonfiction). Paul Karlstrom, whose book received the Contribution to Publishing award, also came out to accept. Following the ceremony, guests were treated to a book signing involving all award winners in attendance, while enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres.

A list of the winners is online here. The video below is of the awards ceremony recognizing the newest winners of this prestigious prize.

Christie Hefner Exits Playboy Enterprises

At a time of unprecedented turmoil in the publishing and media markets, Playboy Enterprises Chair and CEO Christie Hefner has announced her plans to leave the company she has led for 20 years.

Hefner, seen in the photo above addressing The Commonwealth Club of California on January 19, 2005, has been credited with stearing the company through decades of changing tastes in America's political, cultural, and business scenes. From closing the company's iconic nightclubs to selling its iconic skycscraper in Chicago (sorry; so much of the magazine – like it or dislike it – is iconic), Ms. Hefner changed the company into a multimedia player with considerable successes in video and the internet. The company has, arguably, not recovered from the loss of big-pocket advertisers after it became targeted by right-wing critics in the 1980s. But it remains a major multimedia player, and Ms. Hefner has been a high-profile media executive with frequent public appearances (at everything from the old Internet World expos to the aforementioned Commonwealth Club, where she discussed globalized media companies).

Her exit marks yet another turning point for the company founded by her father in 1953. No doubt, publishing industry eyes will be closely watching her successor for indications of how much he or she will change the direction of the – sorry – iconic company.

This just in: MSNBC interviews Christie Hefner about her future plans; click on the video feature to view the interview.