Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Gourmet, the food and lifestyle magazine edited by former New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl, is shutting down after owner Condé Nast determined it could no longer sustain the publication’s losses.

The New York-based publisher closed Gourmet yesterday almost 70 years after the magazine was founded as a showcase for French chefs. Condé Nast, a unit of Advance Publications Inc., will also discontinue Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and parenting magazine Cookie, said Chief Executive Officer Chuck Townsend.

“There’s a great deal of sentimentality associated with Gourmet,” Townsend said in an interview yesterday, noting that the magazine was losing money. “It is the epitome of Condé Nast photography and journalism, but it’s a poor business.”

First published in January 1941, Gourmet has been run since 1999 by Reichl, also the author of multiple books on food. Advertising revenue at the magazine plunged 43 percent in the first half of 2009, a steeper drop than the U.S. industry average, as readers and marketers cut back in the recession.

“It will be a very different culinary world without Gourmet,” said Jacques Pépin, a dean of the French Culinary Institute in New York, author of numerous cookbooks, and a former contributor to the magazine. “When I came to the U.S. 50 years ago, there was Gourmet; that was it.”

Gourmet’s ad sales slid to $28.3 million in the first six months of the year from $49.5 million a year earlier, according to data from the Publishers Information Bureau. That 43 percent drop compares with a 21 percent decline for the U.S. magazine industry, to $9.1 billion, during the same period.

Ad sales probably won’t grow this year, Townsend said.

Luxury Ads

“Advertising is very slow to return, particularly for the luxury category,” Townsend said. “While the economy picks up some fundamental steam, I don’t think it’s fueled by the consumer.”

Industrywide, magazine circulation in the U.S. fell 1.2 percent in this year’s first half, including a 12 percent drop in sales at newsstands and supermarkets, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Condé Nast hired consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in July to evaluate its magazine properties and other aspects of its business, said Maurie Perl, a spokeswoman for the publisher. About 180 employees will leave, she said.

Townsend said Reichl won’t remain with the company. Reichl wasn’t available to comment.

The chief executive also said he doesn’t plan any more magazine closures. Condé Nast plans to keep the Gourmet brand name to use for book and recipe sales, he said.

‘Terrible Implications’

“The demise of Gourmet has terrible implications for cookbook publishing,” said Pat Adrian, former editor-in-chief of the Good Cook cookbook club. “It signals that people don’t want to know the cultural background of the food or recipe they prepare.”

Reichl was the food critic for the New York Times before joining Gourmet and published memoirs revolving around food such as “Tender at the Bone” and “Comfort Me With Apples.” She was also a restaurant critic and food editor for the Los Angeles Times.

Gourmet’s total circulation fell less than 1 percent to 978,038 in the six months through June, compared with a year earlier, though the magazine’s single-copy newsstand sales plunged 25 percent in the same period, ABC data show.

Modern Bride’s single-copy sales dropped 20 percent to 129,000 and its total circulation fell 1.2 percent. Cookie boosted its circulation 4.9 percent to 566,274, while its single-copy sales fell 20 percent to 12,120. Data aren’t available for Elegant Bride.

Condé Nast in the past year closed its Portfolio, Domino and Golf for Women magazines. It folded Men’s Vogue into Vogue magazine. Cookie, founded in 2005, aimed to reach modern mothers.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 6, 2009 00:01 EDT