• Mediaweek, Monday, October 12, 2009 10:15 AM

In the wake of Conde Nast's unexpected decision to fold its elite Gourmet, all magazines will get a harder look from some media buyers. "I just don't believe anyone anymore," says Scott Daly, Dentsu America executive media director. Brenda White, publishing activation director at Starcom USA, says she will now demand more detail about magazines' underlying financial strength. "We're going to have more transparency going forward," she says.

Circulation, for instance, has been getting a harder look with buyers and planners questioning rate bases and unpaid sources like verified subs. They're also demanding data issue-specific ad measurement services from Mediamark Research & Intelligence and Affinity Research that promise near real-time magazine measurement.

Gourmet folding is freaking everyone out, "because it was a much-loved magazine," says Peter Gardiner, chief media officer at Deutsch. "But in the days of Food Network and Rachael Ray, it's hard to invest the kind of money Conde Nast invested to keep a product as rich, sensual and well thought of as Gourmet."

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