‘How Do You Incorporate an LLC? I Have No Idea!’

Nozlee Samadzadeh on restarting Gourmet with a profit-sharing plan for freelancers and space for foods that look gross but taste delicious.

Since the launch of the pioneering, worker-owned sports publication Defector, five years ago, heartening tales of journalism co-ops have proliferated. The latest such collaboration adds a refreshing bit of gimmickry: after discovering by happenstance that Condé Nast had neglected to renew the trademark for Gourmet, the ambitious and beloved food magazine shuttered in 2009, a crew of media pals launched… Gourmet. The bold gambit has landed them coverage in the New York Times and Grub Street, as well as the support of Ruth Reichl, the original Gourmet’s longtime editor, who told them Gourmet “deserves to rise from the ashes.”