Gourmet magazine to return as iPad app

There's been a lot of talk about the iPad saving print, but in this case it might actually happen. Gourmet magazine closed up shop late last year, but the publisher is getting ready to bring the mag back -- as an iPad app called Gourmet Live. The app will be free (with a few options for in-app payments), and will not only include articles and recipes from the magazine, but some online check-in functionality, and a few other fun tidbits. It's not something that could support a print magazine, sounds like, but for fans of the brand, it'll be a nice return.

Then again, maybe an app like this can support a magazine. Conde Nast, who owns both Gourmet and Wired (which is already making waves on the iPad), says that surprisingly, app sales have not only "surpassed our newsstand sales" but "has not cannibalized them either." That's intriguing -- all of the talk about the iPad saving print has focused on moving newsstand customers over to digital media, but a story like that hints that maybe digital media can still work as promotion for traditional newsstand publications. We'll have to see how this all plays out -- Gourmet Live is due out in the fall.