Food Media News: Gourmet Folds; Eater.com Goes National, Offers Bounty

Sad news food writing wise on two fronts today. First comes news that the venerable Gourmet magazine will be shutting down operations as part of a cost-cutting move spurred by a decline in ad revenues by parent company Conde Nast. A Gourmet byline is a holy grail among food writers and, under the editorial leadership of Ruth Riechl, some of the magazine's content was simply poetic. The loss of Gourmet's print concern leaves a void. A Conde Nast memo indicates that Gourmet's tv programming, book publishing, and recipes on epicurious.com will remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, erstwhile food blog network Eater announced plans Friday to go national. Again. Eater National will incorporate restaurant, food media and chef-related news from all over the country, including Chicago. If you'll remember, Eater tried — and failed — to establish a local presence last year. To announce the launch and (presumably) fight the glut of food blogs in the Internet wastelands, Eater is offering a $25 bounty to any food blogger who will shut down his blog.

Buy out the competition? How very News Corporation of them. Most other bloggers would just work hard to make their sites readable.