Adam Salomone, Ronny Golan, Jesse McDougall workshop #toccon

1. The Future of the Cookbook
Tools of Change
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
#TOCfuturecook

2. Today’s Panelists
• Adam Salomone - Associate Publisher, The
Harvard Common Press
– @hcpdishes
• Jesse McDougall – Co-Founder, Catalyst
Webworks
– @jsmcdougall
• Ronny Golan – Founder, BookPulse
– @bookpulse

3. Why the “future of the cookbook?”
• Tremendous growth in consumer interest regarding an
understanding of food, cooking technique and food
ways, etc.
• Concurrent growth in the breadth and depth of content
available online
• Food blogs, websites and technology plays
• Publishers need to rethink the ways in which they
deliver content
• Current e-distribution methods are either too expensive (apps) or
ill-suited for use in the kitchen (ebooks)
• The proliferation of digital options means consumers are willing to
pay less and less for content (i.e. free recipe websites)
• Publishers cannot keep up with content generation in the digital
world

4. Three Avenues of Exploration
• Content
– What are the ways in which publishers can rethink
content generation to make publishing cycles faster
and more responsive to trends?
• Monetization
– How are cookbooks suited to new monetization
opportunities both inside and outside of the book?
• Social engagement
– Consumers are more interested in talking about food
and cooking online
– Connection to brands, personalities and authors

5. Content Generation
• Curated content generation vs user content generation
– Hybrid model – Food52
– AllRecipes.com, Meredith acquisition
• Trend cycles, how can publishers take advantage of new
trends?
– Food bloggers
– UGC
• How can publishers blend the print and the online world?
– Enhanced content?
– Cross-media usages
– Repurposed content initiatives
• How is the author’s role changing with content creation?

6. Monetization
• Monetization inside the book
– Ad-based revenue models
– Co-branded cookbooks (i.e. the new “custom pub”)
– Affiliate supported “stores” inside the book
• Can the book become the equivalent of a cooking store between two covers?
• Monetization outside of the book
– Individual recipes
– Recipe bundles
• In-print vs electronic
– Web/Subscription-based opportunities
• Curating cooking verticals, seeded with recipe content.
• What aspects of a recipe do you think consumers are most willing to pay
up for?
– Content, voice, narrative
– Functionality
• Do you think there’s a meaningful difference between curated content and
non-curated when charging for individual recipes?
– Do free online recipes complicate the process of recipe monetization?

7. Social Engagement
• Examples of social engagement
– Book-centric opportunities
• Commenting, annotation, in-book cooking demos
– Food platforms outside of the book
• Specific platforms for engagement
• Community-building, acquisitions, content shareability.
• Author involvement in outreach
– Personalities and brands
– Connection
• How food bloggers fit into that social community
– Gatekeepers

8. Case Study: The Online Food Publisher
• What is the cookbook publisher of the future?
• How about this:
– Online publishing house
– Uses backlist of recipes to seed content across 5-
6verticals, oriented around one major food site
• Health, barbecue, cocktails, baking, etc
– Author acts as “editorial director / community manager”
• Curates content from other sites in their vertical, works with bloggers
to bring in new content
• Other authors in publisher’s backlist participate on the site as well
– Each site is equipped for sharability of content, monetization via
advertising, community store, and co-branded opportunities.
– Sells cookbooks from the publisher, but also other products as
well

9. Questions?

10. Thank you!