This is the question more and more people need to know to ask-we’ve accepted advertising like it’s the air we breathe. I’m also going to put it out there that maybe the success of the Graza olive oil is the ease of it being in a squeeze bottle
This is so on the money. Literally, as you point out, as “ money is the point of business,” ha ha. I really appreciate that you’re able to name this without shame because I think that acknowledging this helps pave the way to building a more ethical/meaningful/powerful practice of doing media. Or content creation I guess. We’re not going to get anywhere if people keep pretending they don’t have to make a living.
Alicia, this hit so close to home, and yes, we can do food media better! We just have a very uphill battle to climb.
Food media, digital at least, is dominated by SEO. I was a food “blogger” from 2011 to early 2023. The way to have any chance at making a living was to get as many people to your site as possible. That’s hard to do when discussing anything that goes against mainstream views. I was told by many in my network that we’d be better off not talking about sensitive topics. If our food were less quinoa and more “American” with more beef, cheese, and bread, we’d make more money. Still, we made a modest living for two and were pretty happy.
My partner and I went plant-based in 2020 and 2021, respectively, so I was glad to finally exit our last remaining site in early 2023. I planned on shifting my work to fit my sociological and food justice background and interests through writing and continuing with freelance recipe development and photography. Crickets.
For some reason, I was naive in thinking a decade-long career was worth more than an extensive list of followers, but that has not been my experience. I know it will be infinitely harder or possibly impossible to ever publish another cookbook without a following, but new followings are so hard to build these days in such a noisy digital space, especially as someone who is exhausted from the constant hamster wheel of content creation.
I’ve also found that working solely within the plant-based niche, I get many more responses like, “We’re a small brand that can’t compete with larger non-plant-based brands, so we don’t have a budget.” They do have budgets for influencer campaigns, though. I’m often asked for my social numbers when prospective clients reach out for recipe development or photography work…226 isn’t getting me very far.
The future of food media is up to all of us to search out voices we respect who are doing good work and to support and uplift those voices. I so appreciate your work!
This feels like a deeply necessary question, and I have been thinking about a lot- so many chefs left the often exploitative restaurant industry post-pandemic and have been able to build careers through writing, recipe development, and brand partnerships (it’s a path I’ve been attempting to follow myself with mixed success). It feels impossible to make the math work without brand partnerships, and it can feel like a really desperate choice when the other option is returning to the grind of restaurant work.
Your description of press trips is giving me anxiety. I did a little bit of travel journalism back in the days when the publication paid for everything. Alas!
It was much less stressful to craft a story or a series of them without a PR person breathing down your neck and filling up your inbox with follow up.
In addition to the influencer economy, I also think about all the media folks who finally just gave up and started working for/with tech companies and other big business. Me included!
It works well for me because it’s not that draining and I can still take on passion projects without worrying about the financial side of them. But no doubt something is lost when you have so many culture workers now using their creative energy for massive brands.
Stay goofy! Love the perspective you bring to food thought...business and money be damned! Slow growth and enduring passion won't make you rich but it will enrich you, even support you.
I decided that the infuencer thing was going too far when I had a marketing firm suggest I pay some food entrepreneur influencer to mention my food safety consulting firm. Ridiculous.
This is the question more and more people need to know to ask-we’ve accepted advertising like it’s the air we breathe. I’m also going to put it out there that maybe the success of the Graza olive oil is the ease of it being in a squeeze bottle
This is so on the money. Literally, as you point out, as “ money is the point of business,” ha ha. I really appreciate that you’re able to name this without shame because I think that acknowledging this helps pave the way to building a more ethical/meaningful/powerful practice of doing media. Or content creation I guess. We’re not going to get anywhere if people keep pretending they don’t have to make a living.
Alicia, this hit so close to home, and yes, we can do food media better! We just have a very uphill battle to climb.
Food media, digital at least, is dominated by SEO. I was a food “blogger” from 2011 to early 2023. The way to have any chance at making a living was to get as many people to your site as possible. That’s hard to do when discussing anything that goes against mainstream views. I was told by many in my network that we’d be better off not talking about sensitive topics. If our food were less quinoa and more “American” with more beef, cheese, and bread, we’d make more money. Still, we made a modest living for two and were pretty happy.
My partner and I went plant-based in 2020 and 2021, respectively, so I was glad to finally exit our last remaining site in early 2023. I planned on shifting my work to fit my sociological and food justice background and interests through writing and continuing with freelance recipe development and photography. Crickets.
For some reason, I was naive in thinking a decade-long career was worth more than an extensive list of followers, but that has not been my experience. I know it will be infinitely harder or possibly impossible to ever publish another cookbook without a following, but new followings are so hard to build these days in such a noisy digital space, especially as someone who is exhausted from the constant hamster wheel of content creation.
I’ve also found that working solely within the plant-based niche, I get many more responses like, “We’re a small brand that can’t compete with larger non-plant-based brands, so we don’t have a budget.” They do have budgets for influencer campaigns, though. I’m often asked for my social numbers when prospective clients reach out for recipe development or photography work…226 isn’t getting me very far.
The future of food media is up to all of us to search out voices we respect who are doing good work and to support and uplift those voices. I so appreciate your work!
This feels like a deeply necessary question, and I have been thinking about a lot- so many chefs left the often exploitative restaurant industry post-pandemic and have been able to build careers through writing, recipe development, and brand partnerships (it’s a path I’ve been attempting to follow myself with mixed success). It feels impossible to make the math work without brand partnerships, and it can feel like a really desperate choice when the other option is returning to the grind of restaurant work.
Your description of press trips is giving me anxiety. I did a little bit of travel journalism back in the days when the publication paid for everything. Alas!
It was much less stressful to craft a story or a series of them without a PR person breathing down your neck and filling up your inbox with follow up.
In addition to the influencer economy, I also think about all the media folks who finally just gave up and started working for/with tech companies and other big business. Me included!
It works well for me because it’s not that draining and I can still take on passion projects without worrying about the financial side of them. But no doubt something is lost when you have so many culture workers now using their creative energy for massive brands.
Stay goofy! Love the perspective you bring to food thought...business and money be damned! Slow growth and enduring passion won't make you rich but it will enrich you, even support you.
I decided that the infuencer thing was going too far when I had a marketing firm suggest I pay some food entrepreneur influencer to mention my food safety consulting firm. Ridiculous.
Off topic for this post. I finished reading your recent book last night. Loved it, even though I fit the support local more than veggie pure side of things. I woke up this morning to this article I feel fits perfectly with your thoughts on tech bros and future food… https://www.axios.com/2024/03/11/chipotle-founder-kernel-robots-vegan-new-restaurant?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioswhatsnext&stream=science
What could be better than robot created and delivered food? The answer to the question I have been too slow to ask myself.
Enjoy your morning.
“How the economic cookie crumbles” is certainly one way to put it.