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Conde Nast Axes ‘Gourmet,’ ‘Cookie,’ Bridal Mags

A magazine massacre took place this morning at Conde Nast: the publisher announced that it will close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride. Brides will increase frequency to monthly.

The closures follow the conclusion of an analysis of Conde Nast’s costs by McKinsey & Company, which also suggested that several magazines cut 25% from their budgets, reports The New York Times.

Conde Nast titles have collectively lost 8,000 ad pages, excluding bridal titles, so far this year. Earlier this year, Conde Nast shuttered Portfolio and Domino, and rolled Men’s Vogue into Vogue.

The closure of Gourmet comes as a surprise to those in the industry, many of whom expected Gourmet sister publication Bon Appetit to close if Conde Nast needed to shutter one of its food titles.

Gourmet’s ad pages were down 50% in the second quarter from the same period last year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau (via the Los Angeles Times). In September, Conde Nast ad pages were down 37% from last September.

Gawker has the complete memo by Conde boss Chuck Townsend announcing the closures. Townsend writes that Conde Nast will remain “committed” to the Gourmet brand, retaining Gourmet’s book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com.

Overall, ad pages for consumer magazines slipped 29.5% in the second quarter of 2009 from Q2 2008, a steeper slide than Q1 2009, when ad pages fell 26%.

For the first half, ad pages were down 27.9%.