So it’s the day before Halloween, and you don’t have a costume. What to do? Fortunately, Mediaite has come up with some costume suggestions for you. Pulled straight from the headlines, these are guaranteed to be hits:

One supposes that at the end of the day someone should be benefiting from the shuttering-heard-round-the-food-world that was the folding of Gourmet earlier this month. Turns out that someone is the other (arguably less passionately loved) Condé foodie magazine Bon Appetit.

When Gawker reported that Wired boss Chris Anderson was too busy promoting his book to be present on layoff day, the tech editor took to his Twitter to defend himself. But Anderson angrily taking the bait of his ex-employee is exactly what Ryan Tate and Gawker want.

As if the McKinsey evaluation uncertainty that’s been hanging over 4 Times Sq. these past few months isn’t bad enough, Vanity Fair honcho Graydon Carter apparently couldn’t even be bothered to show up to relay yesterday’s bad layoff news himself. Business as usual?

The business woes at Condé Nast have been well-documented and it’s not a pretty sight. With layoffs coming across the board, it seems the company is finally waking up, but digital media has proved to be a shrill alarm. Now, the magazine publishing giant is releasing full issues of GQ through the iPhone app store, along with two new recently launched websites that were a longtime coming.

Ruth Reichl did a Q&A in this Sunday’s NYT Magazine and talked briefly about the loss of her magazine. Reichl revealed that Si Newhouse informed her “not on email” (snap!) about Gourmet‘s “stunning” demise, and also discussed why she feels The New Yorker will remain “untouched” forever.

Nobody is safe from the lay-offs at Condé Nast. Not even members of the Advance Publications royal family. Not even Newhouses. Last spring, Gawker reported that Stephanie Newhouse had landed a spot at Self magazine, even as people were being laid off all around the company. But now she too has lost her seat.

Slate.com chairman Jacob Weisberg’s thinks the biggest challenge Gawker’s now faces is to not morph “into the sort of journalism it often likes to ridicule.” However, we think the more likely scenario will be that the Times et al. are going to increasingly look (if not necessarily sound) like Gawker?

Mediaite first reported that layoffs at Vogue would be announced yesterday. Peter Kafka at All Things D later reported that at least six have been laid off (we had heard that seven were let go). Today we are hearing that another title will be letting staffers go, though its unclear at this point which magazine will be making the cuts.

It has been widely reported that nearly every surviving title at Condé Nast has been tasked with cutting 25% of their overall budgets. We also know that the Editors-in-Chief at each title have been given the leeway to make the cuts as they see fit, on their own schedule. The timing of these cuts has been closely guarded until now, and it remains unclear when cuts will come for each title.

UPDATE – All Things D reports that at least six have been laid off.

At some point the New York daily tabloids are going to become a luxury instead of a necessity. That day has apparently arrived at the New York Times Metro Desk. The NYO is reporting that the Metro Desk has been informed that, as of today, if you want the paper you now gots to pay for it.

The Monday morning Gourmet quarterbacking continues a week after Condé Nast decided to shutter the much-loved foodie mag along with three others. Now that the initial dust has settled from the first round and the much of the magazine world is waiting for the second shoe to drop, a number of folks are taking a peak behind the curtain at the wizard himself. It ain’t pretty.

Now would be a good time for the folks at Condé Nast to make a brave and convincing foray into the online world, right? And so they have — well, it’s brave at least — with the launch of a new dating site trulymadlydating.com. The idea is to get Glamour readers into a dating pool with GQ readers, and make money setting them up in stylish relationships. Since something is terribly wrong with Condé’s core business, it seems the publishing house is ready to try anything.

Newsweek is the latest media outlet to exploit that hot emotional trend known as “Condéfreude” — you know, the satisfaction or pleasure felt at Conde Nast‘s misfortune. One expects this sort of coverage from guilty pleasure sites like Gawker and Jezebel, but Newsweek? Need anyone remind them that they reported first quarter losses this year of over $20 Million?

After years of being the sacred cow of the magazine world, Condé Nast has, with the shuttering of Gourmet, in one fell swoop demonstrated actually nothing is sacred. The panic has apparently reached the op-ed pages of the New York Times, and it would seem a harsh reality is setting in: your years of experience, quality work, and credentials no longer matter.

Famed fashion photographer, Irving Penn, died today at the age of 92 at his home in Manhattan. A much valued contributing photographer at Vogue, Penn quickly became a tastemaker. His ability to portray fashion with clarity landed 150 of his photographs on the fashion bible’s cover and a lengthy, 40 year stay at the publication.

Devoted fans of Gourmet were shocked and heartbroken over Monday’s announcement that Condé Nast would be shuttering the magazine effective immediately. They weren’t the only ones. A quick glance at Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl’s recent twitters drive home how much of a painful surprise the decision was to both her and her staff. At least the airport people were nice!

Shortly after Conde Nast announced this week’s closures Mediaite obtained a memo to the digital staff from Condé Nast Digital svp Drew Schutte suggesting the clock was ticking with regards to the websites of the shuttered magazines. Does this mean we should just expect more of the same on the Conde Nast Digital front? Meaning: not much.

Perhaps McKinsey should have hired Jon Stewart to do their Condé Nast evaluating! On the Daily Show last night Stewart expressed dismay over all the people who’d lost their jobs during this week’s Condé shuttering before proposing an alternate solution to closing the magazines altogether: marry them! It makes for some interesting results.

Yesterday we heard word that Condé Nast would be closing Gourmet magazine after 69 years of monthly food and wine coverage. Over nearly seven decades as one of the foremost titles in food, Gourmet perfected the art of the minimalist cover, favoring one simple drawing or photo — but always enough to make our mouths water. Check out the full slideshow inside.

Things almost seemed normal again at New York’s just-concluded Fashion Week. Yes, some of the fabrics on the runways might have been cheaper, and bottles of water were handed out at shows instead glasses of Veuve. But as in years past, Vogue editor Anna Wintour still reigned supreme as she sat front-row at the most [...]

Slate’s Jack Shafer comparing the fate of Conde Nast to that of that other overreaching, reality-ignoring American powerhouse, General Motors. Next up: Graydon Carter and Anna Wintour fly to Washington in their private jets to beg for a bailout!

Today, when the the news hit that Condé Nast would be closing some titles from their bridal and parenting divisions, I feared for the future of pot roast. I’m clearly not the target demographic for Cookie magazine. But my wife has been a subscriber for most of its four years in existence, and I’ve come to appreciate it as the one “parenting” (read: “mommy”) magazine that I read regularly. And now it’s gone.

the shuttering of Gourmet remains to many the biggest shock of today’s Condé Nast layoffs. The fate of its equally well-known editor Ruth Reichl is unknown right now, though considering the company plans to keep both the publishing and television arm of Gourmet active chances are they will find a place for her. That said, what does Reichl’s precarious position say about the fate of Condé’s other high profile editors?

The wait is, sadly, over. After months of speculation, the painful results of McKinsey’s evaluation of Condé Nast are in and it’s not pretty. Condé has just announced that it plans to shutter Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride. CEO Chuck Townsend’s full memo after the jump.

UPDATE: Drew Schutte: “Cookie.com and Gourmet.com sites will remain up at least through the end of the year.”