Ruth Reichl: The New Yorker Will Remain Untouched Forever

Regardless of the practical money decisions that went into the shuttering of Gourmet earlier this month the loss of Ruth Reichl is a hard blow to the magazine world. Someone quick give this woman a Web enterprise to run! Doesn’t Eater need a super-duper, extra-special, featured, guest columnist or something.

Reichl was featured in a Q&A in this Sunday’s NYT Magazine and talked briefly about the loss of her magazine — a decision the NYDN reports that many foodies feel is a “personal attack on the food industry.” Reichl revealed that Si Newhouse informed her “not on email” about Gourmet’s “stunning” demise and why she feels The New Yorker will remain untouched forever.

How did you learn that your job no longer exists? Who told you?
Si.

Meaning S. I. Newhouse, who owns Condé Nast Publications. In an e-mail message or in person?
It was not an e-mail.

Sounds like phone.
It was a conversation. I wouldn’t in a million years have imagined this.

Did you ask him why Condé Nast was shuttering Gourmet while keeping afloat some 18 other magazines, including Bon Appétit and such giants of intellectual life as Golf World and Golf Digest?
I was so stunned, I basically just listened.

Do you think he has considered closing The New Yorker?
No. I would bet my life on that. I think that Si loves that magazine, and I think — this is just my opinion — it will remain untouched, and it will be there forever.

Gourmet’s circulation is about the same as that of The New Yorker — you have about a million subscribers, right?
I think it was more than that. It has a legendary renewal rate. They would never tell me exactly what it was. I kept asking: “What does that mean? What are you talking about?” And they just kept saying: “It’s great. People buy Gourmet forever.”

Did you see Jon Stewart the other night, when he made a Gourmet joke?
I did not. What did he say?

He mentioned that Condé Nast was shutting down four magazines — Gourmet, along with Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie — and suggested that instead they could be combined into a new cost-cutting magazine called Pregnant Gourmet Bride.
That’s great! I’m amazed no one has told me that. I’m amazed my son didn’t at least e-mail me that.

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