Gourmet Magazine Reborn in App Form

Last year saw the shuttering of a number of popular magazines including Blender, King, and Vibe. When most magazines fold, they go walking quietly into the darkness, never to be heard from again. However the web is breathing new life into publications that died the slow death of poor ad sales and subscription numbers. Vibe is one of those magazine’s that pulled a Lazarus.

The latest publication to rise from the grave is Gourmet. Many were shocked last fall when the news that the Conde Nast publication was folding started circulating. A 68-year-old property, Gourmet was one of Conde Nast’s premier pubs. The New York Times reported that the magazine was a victim of its own excess and “poured money into sumptuous photography, test kitchens, and exotic travel pieces, resulting in a beautifully produced magazine that lived, and sold, the high life.” In a statement, Conde Nast chief executive Charles Townsend speculated that Gourmet would possibly exist in the future via undetermined deals in television, books, or the web.

Similar to Vibe, Gourmet is relaunching as a web-exclusive property dubbed Gourmet Live. According to All Things Digital. this new iteration is an iPad app that will focus on “social gameplay and e-commerce opportunities. As far as content goes, the app will pull from Gourmet’s extensive catalog of articles and recipes and serve them up to a new tech-savvy audience.

We’ve discussed how African-American publications need to make the move towards creating apps that act as a tool to provide the online reader with a richer online experience that supplements rather than cannibalizes the print side. It is imperative that our favorite pubs catch up with the times and start using the web to their advantage.As we’ve witnessed, those that don’t progress with the times become a bookmark in history.

It’s not often that many print publications get a second chance and when they do, drastic changes are usually made to bring the property up to speed. It should be noted that since Gourmet is mining past articles for content, there was really no need to bring back any of the staff, which should send a clear message to print staffers: get with the times or suffer the consequences.

About the Author
Sherri is a freelance writer that has a love of all things fun and geeky including gadgets, gaming, anime, and comics. When she isn't writing or out on the town living it up, she loves doing 10-12 hour marathon sessions on her Xbox 360 or one of her older consoles. It's not an addiction, it's a way of life!
See all posts by Sherri L. Smith.