So what happens to an editrix after Si Newhouse shuts down her magazine?
Dominique Browning wrote in The Times Magazine last weekend that her life went into a free fall after House & Garden was shuttered in 2007. She details how she spent much of her time in pajamas, how she thought about death, how Read More
Back in August, on the eve of Sam Sifton’s appointment, John Koblin wrote a “Lament for the Old-Fashioned Restaurant Critic.” This month, the Columbia Journalism Review examines the profession’s trajectory: from Craig Claiborne’s development of the standard Times review, to Ruth Reichl’s elevation of the review to “a bona fide Read More
When you embark upon a career like “print journalist,” the important thing is having something to fall back on. Such as show business.
The L.A. Times Daily Dish blog caught wind of a Ruth Reichl movie slated for 2010 when the former Gourmet editor visited town last week, and dug up some Read More
Ruth Reichl spoke with Leonard Lopate on WNYC, addressing the fate of print and, of course, the final days of Gourmet. Ms. Reichl, who edited the revered food magazine for 10 years before it folded in October, reiterated the shock she’s discussed in previous interviews (“It was a done deal”), Read More
Since Gourmet folded in early October, Condé Nast has pledged to continue to market the iconic brand. Gourmet’s cookie cookbook is due to come out early next year, and a PBS show, Gourmet’s Adventures with Ruth, is in the middle of a 10-episode run.
That show’s first season is nearly over. So will the Read More
John Koblin spoke with Ruth Reichl last night at a posthumous party for Gourmet. In between greeting colleagues and navigating the coat check, she talked about her plans for a book on Conde Nast.
“It’s a very rarefied world,” she said. “It was a world that most people—I had no idea that this Read More
On a very chilly, rainy Thursday night, Ruth Reichl was hugging Dianne Weist on the third floor of the Time Warner Center, at the back of the restaurant A Voce. While embracing, Ms. Weist was removing a bulky winter jacket and a big red scarf. A handler asked Ms. Weist if she was interested in Read More
The 180 bodies lost this week at Condé Nast, in the wake of the execution of Gourmet, Cookie and two bridal magazines, comprise the greater part of the damage that we’re going to see out of 4 Times Square, CEO Chuck Townsend told The Observer.
“This was the big news,” said Mr. Townsend. Read More
When Condé Nast chief executive Chuck Townsend announced the deaths of Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, he gave hope to readers and staffers alike that some semblance of the magazines might live online. The changes will “enable us to pursue new ventures,” he wrote in his internal memo. “In the coming weeks, we Read More
Not Becoming My Mother and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way
By Ruth Reichl
Penguin Press, 112 pages, $19.95
When Ruth Reichl was restaurant critic for The New York Times in the mid-to-late 1990s, people hated her unprecedented democratization of the post: how she awarded two stars to noodle shops with crummy décor; Read More
