So most people would not think of the sudden closing of Gourmet Magazine as a good day for Ruth Reichl, the magazine’s editor.  I assume for the moment that is true for Ruth Reichl herself (the New York Times quotes her today as being sad about the loss of an institution).  Yet I think she might find some time from now that this was a good day for her.  A day that liberated her from the many constraints of print publishing and allowed her to start an independent online publication. Ruth Reichl has had her own audience for a long time both as restaurant critic for the New York Times and as the author of several books.

Now is the time to go directly to that audience without Newhouse, Random House or any other publishing house.  Could this work financially?  I am absolutely convinced.  In fact, it could work without even adding any advertising to a web site.  I believe that if Ruth Reichl were to publish all her writing for free on her own blog with a couple of weeks or so time delay and offered a subscription-priced iPhone app at say 2 dollars per month which makes the content available immediately she would do amazingly well. Quickly creating an app for this would be easy using something like Eachscape.  I have personally tried to encourage some other high profile columnists and writers for the New York Times to take that leap.  But they have been too loyal to the paper or too worried about the risk to do it.

I am hoping that for Ruth Reichl the demise of Gourmet will provide the push to strike out on her own.  And then I hope others will follow!