Updated 3:30 p.m. ET

In a sweeping reorganization following devastating advertising page declines, Condé Nast said it would close four magazines: Gourmet, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride and Cookie.

"Condé Nast's success comes from the ability of our publications to attract readers with a wide range of interests, as well as advertisers who value them," Condé Nast chief executive Chuck Townsend said in an e-mail to staff sent Oct. 5. "But in this economic climate it is important to narrow our focus to titles with the greatest prospects for long-term growth.

Staffers had been sweating bullets over expected job losses since the company brought in consultants from McKinsey & Co. to help reevaluate the magazine publisher, which has been known for its free-spending ways.
 
The company previously had mandated 5 percent cuts in expenses and closed some of its underperforming titles, Condé Nast Portfolio, Domino and Men's Vogue in the face of the ad recession. But internally, the company was believed to be committed to publishing its remaining magazines.

Condé Nast said Brides, its surviving bridal magazine, would increase its frequency to monthly from six times a year. It plans to continue Gourmet's book publishing and TV programming and focus on its other food title, Bon Appetit.

About 180 staffers are expected to lose their jobs, according to reports in The New York Times and The New York Observer.

(On PDNPulse: Names of the creative staff at each magazine.)



All four titles had been on company followers' watch lists for closing, albeit for different reasons. Gourmet and Bon App were widely seen as vulnerable because of the redundancies associated with having two food titles.

Gourmet was more luxury-oriented than sibling Bon Appetit, which made it an ill fit for today's budget-crunched times. Instead, those titles thriving in the space are new, celebrity-focused entries with mass appeal, like Hearst's Food Network Magazine and Reader's Digest Association's Every Day with Rachael Ray.

Of Condé Nast's two food books, Bon App has fared better through the downturn. This year through October, it was down in ad pages 32 percent to Gourmet's 43 percent decline, per the Mediaweek Monitor.

As for circulation, Bon App's declined 1.4 percent to 1.35 million in the first half of the year with a 12.4 percent decline in single-copy sales. Gourmet was essentially flat at 978,037, but with a 25 percent decline on the newsstand. (Figures are from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.)

As a new title and an anomaly as a niche parenting magazine, Cookie won fans among buyers, but faced an upward climb in becoming a business success. And despite the company's efforts to differentiate their audiences, in a time when bridal planning is moving online, three, standalone bridal magazines seemed unsustainable.

Broadly, Condé Nast has suffered deeper ad page declines than many of its peers in this downturn, hurt by its reliance on luxury advertising. Cookie was down 23 percent through October of this year. Elegant Bride was down 42 percent through its fall issue while Modern Bride declined 24 percent.

Townsend said in the memo that the magazine shutdowns, combined with cost-cutting and layoffs throughout the company, would enable it to focus on its digital business -- one that's been knocked as being slow to embrace the Web and develop same-name online versions of its print magazines. Townsend said the company hoped to announce digital versions of its brands that would use new  devices and distribution channels.