Today, we’re very sad to report that publisher CondeNast decided to close down the Brides Local magazines, published in 16 different regions including Northern California. Unlike the national Brides magazine that features national brands, the local Brides editions provided resources and information for local brides and highlighted local wedding vendors.

I have been working with the Brides Local editors for two years and am very saddened by this news. Some of the editors are staying at the property to run brides.com. Some have already left, including my friend Amy Elliott who is now at Lucky.

What is the reason for closing? Well, it always comes down to profits, which CondeNast executives said have still not returned to prerecession levels of 2007, according to the WWD article on the changes:

“Chief executive officer Chuck Townsend and president Bob Sauerberg stressed the importance of beefing up revenue and widening profit margins, according to several people at the meeting. The two executives said the top priority for publishers and editors should be to return print magazines’ profit margins to prerecession, 2007 levels. Townsend emphasized that editors should be more experimental with their Web sites in order to increase revenue. Wired, Vanity Fair, Glamour and The New Yorker were credited with having decent profit margins for their Web sites.”

It’s interesting that Glamour was credited with having “decent profit margins” on their website. I do love Glamour Weddings, which churns out several great stories a day and honestly don’t know how their editors do it! I do find it interesting that they only have the wedding section online without any print products.

Given the proliferation of online wedding blogs, perhaps that is the future for bridal press? I certainly hope not – I just love leafing through those delicious bridal pages and so do many brides and wedding vendors.