Although Condé Nast’s print side is in significant distress, the digital side is not completely safe from the company’s deep cuts. About 15 staffers at Condé Nast Digital have been laid off, mostly in ad sales, Mediaweek reported. The cuts came a day after Condé Nast dismissed the 180 employees who worked on the four shuttered mag titles, including the 68-year-old Gourmet, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, and four-year-old parenting lifestyle mag Cookie.
Those laid off include Richard Glosser, executive director of emerging media; Christine DeMaio, VP, group publisher; and Peter Frank, editor-in-chief of travel site Concierge.com. While the company has indicated it won’t shut down any other magazine titles this year, more layoffs are expected over the next few weeks.
Awful thing for them. Well, they should start seeking for new job opportunities. Moving on would be the best thing to do. Gourmet magazine is one of the latest casualties of the severe downturn in publishing, as many magazines and newspapers have gone belly up. It is part of the Conde Nast publishing empire, which has been hard hit, and several of Nast's journals have had to shut down. Gourmet is considered one of the premier food and culinary journals, along with Bon Appetite, and Editor Ruth Reichl was considered a great authority. The decision to crumble the metaphorical cookie was a sudden one. Several other Nast publications have folded as well. It's sad to see <a rev="vote for" title="Gourmet Magazine’s Reign Ends Abruptly" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/10/05/gourmet-magazines-reign-ends-abruptly/ ">Gourmet magazine</a> go, but apparently even emergency cash loans couldn't keep it going.
Hachette Digital is next.