No More Conde Nast Mag Deaths, For Now

Conde Nast CEO Chuck Townsend says that Conde’s Very Bad, No Good, Four-Magazine-Folding Day today marks the end of magazine closures for the company. Although not the end of the hard times.

Ad Age’s Nat Ives got Townsend on the phone. So rest easy, remaining Conde staffers: Townsend says there are “zero” mag shutdowns to come. Now all you have to worry about is being laid off in the coming rounds of painful 25% budget cuts at almost every title!

Townsend also said that the shuttering of Gourmet was a financial necessity:

It was operating as a burden. In the middle of this decade it was a profitable business, but having two of those businesses did not help the situation. And the dominant business — particularly with the consumer — is Bon Appetit, which emerged as the considerably stronger business.

Sorry, foodies. Tough times, fancy dies. (And Ruth Reichl’s Twitter doesn’t make it sound like she’s coming back).
[Pic via]