The consolidation of the magazine industry continues, and food publications are not immune. The personality-driven magazines (e.g., Rachael Ray, Martha Stewart) seem to be doing fine, but more general-interest publications are suffering. An acquaintance of mine lost her job at AllRecipes. Last week I was looking at my mail and noticed the headline on the latest Cooking Light: The Farewell Issue.
Next to Bon Appétit, I’ve subscribed to Cooking Light the longest, My friend Bernie turned me onto it when we were in grad school. At the time, it was a spinoff of Southern Living, the arbiter of taste below the Mason-Dixon Line. The recipes were reliable. It had an excellent stable of contributors over the years, including Andrea Nguyen and Eleanor Krieger. (My brush with fame: Eleanor was a student in the food science lab where I was a teaching assistant.)
Several years ago, Time-Life bought Southern Living, Cooking Light, and Sunset. All three got homogenized and lost some of their respective identities. Sunset was bought by a Western-based publisher and got some of its regional mojo back. Cooking Light was sold to Meredith, which also owns Eating Well. Two magazines in the same genre wasn’t sustainable; therefore, Cooking Light was axed. My subscription will be rolled over to Eating Well.
This probably won’t be the last magazine to fold up. Adieu, Cooking Light.
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