I spoke with Maurie Perl, senior VP of corporate communications for Condé Nast, late Monday about the company’s announcement that it would shut down four titles, including the 67-year-old Gourmet — a decision that affected approximately 180 employees.
She said a couple interesting things:
1. I asked her if any more magazines would be shut down in the short term. There will be “no more title closings,” she said. (She didn’t rule out layoffs, didn’t say more were imminent.)
2. The shutterings were “not part of the McKinsey study.” The study, she said, was aimed at Condé Nast’s “ongoing magazine businesses” to help facilitate “future growth.” The decision to close Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride were made at the corporate level, internally, and not recommended, at least directly, by McKinsey.
Her responses seem to slightly contradict what we’ve been hearing about McKinsey’s recommendations — specifically that the high-powered consultants who descended on 4 Times Square this fall and urged Condé Nast to close redundant titles like Details, since the portfolio already includes GQ, and since it appeared to heed that advice by icing Gourmet in favor of Bon Appetit and kicking the lesser Brides to the curb. (At least some people inside the company think that Details is a goner.)
I also asked about the purported digital initiatives CEO Chuck Townsend mentioned in his “Black Monday” memo.
Perl said that there would be news coming on that front in time, but “not today.”
