Gourmet and Bon App’s Ad Page Meltdown

Gourmet and Bon App's Ad Page Meltdown

July 21, 2009, 3:45 pm 7 Comments

bon-app-gourmet Condé Nast released its official projections for its September ad sales, and it's not pretty. It's bad. If we're reading the chart after the jump correctly, then year-over-year from Sep 08 to Sep 09, Bon Appetit's ad pages are down 40% (from 74 to 44) and Gourmet's ad pages are down 51.9% (from 85 to 41).

Back in May, Mickey Kaus predicted that Gourmet and Bon Appetit were slated to die, which nobody wants. Maybe they should call their buddies over at Saveur for some advice about climbing up out of the quicksand?

Note: The blue column represents the annual ad-heavy Fashion Rocks supplement that Conde Nast is not publishing this year:

condenast-september

[chart from All Things D via Gawker]

Earlier on Eat Me Daily

Condé Nast's Food Magazines Approach the Bare Minimum

Tags: Bon Appetit, Conde Nast, Gourmet, magazines, print

7 Comments

Comment Feed

Emily

"meltdown" is putting it mildly

July 21, 2009, 4:45 pm Reply
Daniel

What's worse is this just shows the raw ad pages numbers--it doesn't show the (likely significant) declines in ad pricing. Thus ad revenues are probably down more than the 40 and 52% declines in ad pages.

Dan
Casual Kitchen

July 21, 2009, 7:37 pm Reply
Gastronomer

This news makes me sadder than the death of Michael Jackson.

July 22, 2009, 2:28 pm Reply
Jennifer

I cancelled my Bon Appetite after they did their horrible redesign. I didn't enjoy the magazine after that. Perhaps possible advertisers feel the same way? Just saying.

July 23, 2009, 12:18 pm Reply
Carly

How the hell is Golf Digest managing to keep afloat?

July 24, 2009, 8:58 am Reply
maureen

As an International Meeting Planner, I have carried copies of Gourmet and Bon Appetit with me to the four corners of the world, and always look forward to my return home to try the different recipes I have marked off during my trip.

However, the sad reality is that so many folks are now going on to the internet and just googling for recipes, rather than buying and enjoying the magazines and the pictures, and the myriad of advice and comments contained within.

I wonder if there would not be a way for the magazines to create some type of travelling road show, set up in various food sites, in different cities, where the author's of these magazines, could conduct cooking lessons and reestablish what the public is missing by not becoming subscribers, or they could host a lottery like drawing for subscribers who perhaps could win the weekend that Gourmet puts on in NY each year.

July 25, 2009, 10:56 am Reply
Steve

The really sad thing is that Bon Appetit seems to be getting much better to me. I don't understand where Gourmet has been for years.

July 28, 2009, 6:14 pm Reply