Lucky Peach

If I understand the e-mail I just received from Lucky Peach, they are closing down. Anyone else heard about this? Given their fairly light ad base, expensive cover price and lack of newsstand presence I guess it was only a matter of time but Dang! I liked their non-traditional approach to a cooking magazine.

Heard about this a few months back. It's a damn shame! Some really insightful stuff in there sometimes.

Damn shame....

This: http://luckypeach.com/knives-out/

But the brutal truth is that with everyone being a publisher today (you, me and every company believing that content marketing is the holy grail to your purse) traditional media companies will struggle even more than they already did. And that's not even limited to traditional print/digital publishing.

Look at the behemoth of your youth, ESPN. They just laid of 100 journalists, some incredibly talented ones at that. Spending billions on TV rights for major sports and loosing tens of thousands of subscribers a month (thanks to cord-cutting) doesn't look like a situation that will work out going forward.

Add to that sinking viewerships for NBA and even NFL broadcasts .... and you know that we will see massive changes in this arena as well.

My money is on the NBA here btw. Incredible global appeal, good digital strategy and a slew of marketable, young stars ....

Nooooooo

Then end of western civilization will be digital, meaningless content creation/ad driven digital everything and the continued negative impacts it will have on net neutrality and cyber privacy. The canary in the goldmine here is the steady downfall of journalism as a real and noble profession.

StonedEdge said:

Then end of western civilization will be digital, meaningless content creation/ad driven digital everything and the continued negative impacts it will have on net neutrality and cyber privacy. The canary in the goldmine here is the steady downfall of journalism as a real and noble profession.

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Independent journalism was a gatekeeper and watchdog for society we grew up in.

The downfall of journalism as a pillar of democracy threatens democracy itself, IMHO.

Less concerned about meaningless content. That can be filtered out. More concerned that people deal with the oversaturation by retreating and only consuming content they like and care about. That limits exposure to the new, the unproven, the unfamiliar .... and that can never be good for a (open) society.

Just my two cents. Sorry for the rant.

I for once still love having a journalist as filter. Love NYtimes, NYmag, New Yorker, Vice, die Zeit, Fast Company and others ....

You lost me at Vice but I totally get what you're saying and I could not agree more. My comment re: meaningless content was more geared toward the rampant use of misinformation in almost all journalistic facets and doesn't really apply to Lucky Peach

I read a couple of weeks ago about Lucky Peach shutting down. Always stinks when something of that quality closes its proverbial doors.

I think a lot of ESPN's woes are self-inflicted. Repeating the same freaking thing for hours on end with different faces interspersed with shows consisting entirely of "edgy" journalists shouting at each other for a half an hour finally caught up. I haven't been able to watch anything on ESPN (apart from live sporting events) in years.

Stoned Edge, what do you mean "you lost me at Vice"? Are you saying you don't like their stuff or you're unfamiliar with it? Or are you saying it doesn't fall into the same category as NYT, NYorker, etc?

mise_en_place said:

I read a couple of weeks ago about Lucky Peach shutting down. Always stinks when something of that quality closes its proverbial doors.

I think a lot of ESPN's woes are self-inflicted. Repeating the same freaking thing for hours on end with different faces interspersed with shows consisting entirely of "edgy" journalists shouting at each other for a half an hour finally caught up. I haven't been able to watch anything on ESPN (apart from live sporting events) in years.

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Unfortunately the screamers are still with ESPN....

Their shutting down print publication only. Their still supposed to continue to publish an online version.

Of course the question in my mind is "how many issues did I have left on my sub?" They had one of those automatic card deductions on me and I'm not sure when the last hit was.

I just checked and I renewed in Sep 2015 for 2 years. Was the chicken issue the last one or should we expect another? I guess I paid for 2 more issues @$42/8 = $5.25 each.

Mucho Bocho said:

Their shutting down print publication only. Their still supposed to continue to publish an online version.

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The e-mail they sent me said both print and digital were going down. Digital alone never seems to work for magazines. I for one would never reesubscribe for that.

just got the last one in the mail.

peter meehan is cool AF and is gonna be around in some form or another.

Drop that base....bump bump bump....

"Its hard out here for a mag, when you gotta make money for the Jag.....

Its hard out here for a writer, when those subscriber numbers keep getting tighter..."

They never were a advertising driven magazine. That may sound righteous but during my 30+ years in the publishing business I've never known a magazine to last long with that business model. "Cooks" might be the only one that has but I liked the original version better than the current no ad magazine.

Actuall Noodle Soup the niche magazine is a good business model. If anything the bumping heads of 3 big egos without the final say of a true product owner is the makings for disaster.

Major chain bookstore shut down here & was replaced with a Ross discount clothing store. I used to like checking out all the different magazines no more.

Ordered a few books off a discount seller, since two were military history they sent me a catalogue with just military books.

Chef Doom said:

Actuall Noodle Soup the niche magazine is a good business model. If anything the bumping heads of 3 big egos without the final say of a true product owner is the makings for disaster.

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You would be right that niche magazines are doing better than general interest but I've wrote for and edited them most of the last 30 years. No ad dollars, no magazine,and very soon,no publisher. I quit my last editing job about 2 months ago because I was tired of the never ending battle.

Then the question would be what would it take for a no-ad magazine to at least be sustainable?

Obviously you can not rely %100 on subscriptions and off the rack purchases. Sponsorships can't pick up all the slack. What other forms of revenue could they go after?

I just received Sauveur's pasta issue. I never subscribed to Sauveur. Peter Meechan has an article in this issue. I am assuming my subscription to Lucky Peach has turned into a subscription to Sauveur.

I don't know about you but that was one of the most boring issues of Sauveur in a long time. I would like to try many of the dishes but not if I have to start from scratch making the pasta!

Nothing like a guy who calls himself "noodle soup" not liking the thought of actually making noodles :aikido::giggle:

Ever been to an Asian country, China, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand etc.? Virtually everyone buys their noodles from specialty vendors in the market. You want to make noodles, have at it "wildboar."

Yep when I go to buy stuff mostly veg. & fruits from Chinatown there is a noodle shop where you can buy fresh made at a reasonable price.

ManofTaste said:

I just received Sauveur's pasta issue. I never subscribed to Sauveur. Peter Meechan has an article in this issue. I am assuming my subscription to Lucky Peach has turned into a subscription to Sauveur.

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Yup that is what was stated in the letter. A sad state of affairs.

A part of me feels this is a return of bad karma for not re-releasing Lucky Peach #1. I put a fresh new needle in my ceremonial David Chang doll everytime I received a new issue in the mail.

Is the doll always drunk?

Lol yup, and it has a habit of sayings "Thats amazing" all the damn time.

And had the nerve to claim I stole his recipe for apple pie