Aftershocks of the Condé Nast Shakeout

It's been three days since Condé Nast shuttered Gourmet, Cookie, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride in a purge some media bloggers predictably dubbed "Black Monday." Since that day when 180 employees were laid off, the glossy publisher has continued to make changes and eliminate positions.

(It's worth noting, as always, that Portfolio.com is owned by American City Business Journals, a division of Advance Publications, parent company of Condé Nast; this Web site also started its life as a glossy magazine published by Condé Nast from 2007 to 2009.)

On Tuesday, the New York Observer's John Koblin reported that Details had fired its publisher, Steven DeLuca, and brought in Bill Wackerman, publisher of Condé Nast's Glamour. There had been widespread speculation about the future of Details, but Women's Wear Daily's Stephanie D. Smith wrote yesterday, "The move should put to rest rumors that Details would be closed after Condé Nast folded four unprofitable magazines…" WWD also reported that Details' ad pages are down 34 percent this year compared to brother-publication GQ's decline of 32 percent. (It's worth noting, of course, that WWD is also owned by Condé Nast.)

Details doesn't seem to be keeping its head down in the face of the ad-decline and change of publisher: The magazine's current Web site at Men.Style.com has a promo for its months-in-the-works migration to Details.com that reads, "Coming 10/20/09: More Celebs! More Style! More Douchebags!" (More douchebags? Where do we sign up?)

Meanwhile, after the big cuts, Condé Nast has let go about a dozen more employees at Brides, again according to the Observer's Koblin. Condé Nast CEO Chuck Townsend told Koblin there may be more layoffs ahead but wouldn't say how many: "I don’t think it will be substantially more. It’ll be a trickle."

All over the internet, writers are lamenting the closing of 69-year-old food magazine Gourmet. The New York Times 'Dining' section had an obituary, as did the San Francisco Chronicle and Forbes. (The last one was written by Amanda Hesser, co-founder of Food52, whom Portfolio.com profiled, along with her co-founder Merrill Stubbs, last week.) A particularly impassioned remembrance of the magazine came from All Things Digital's usually Web-evangelical BoomTown columnist Kara Swisher who wrote a post headlined The Web Helped Kill Gourmet? If So, Now I Hate the Internet!

Are you happy with yourself now, Internet?