Bon Appetit & Gourmet (not worth the news stand price)

[I originally posted this in 2007 - not much has changed since then, actually maybe worse...]

I can truly say that I have been reading/looking at Bon Appetit and Gourmet for years now and I am about to get rid of their subscription just like I did Food & Wine.

First let me say that if you have a subscription that basically makes each magazine only a dollar apiece, then maybe that's OK.  The photography and/or maybe one article in the whole magazine would be worth a dollar to you...but please please don't pay that shelf price of 3.99 or higher.

I have been counting pages and looking at pictures and realized some very troubling things about these magazines that maybe you are not aware of...

1. If you count the pages of ads, ad pictures, and non-content it will pretty much be 50% to 60% of the magazine.
2. Now take all the pages that have actual content and figure out the real percentage of the page that is not real content...uh huh, now maybe 60% to 65% of the magazine is not true content, meaning its ads.
3. Take away all the credits and small print that doesn't teach you anything (you know all that necessary stuff for publishing) yep, now we're up to 70%.
4. And don't be fooled by some of that great photography or mini-articles because if you read some of the small print or pay attention to the sponsor you realize its more ad pictures and content.
5. Last but not least, take away the real pictures (because they use so many real BIG pictures that are beautiful but take up so much space) and see that you may have 20% actual text content left that is either article or recipe.

Don't get me wrong, that may be worth the dollar or two a magazine per month subscription price but I for one am tired of leafing thru all that ad paraphernalia just to get to what little meat there is...

Look thru your subscriptions and tell me if I am lying.  I think not. My suggestion? Saveur.