The document discusses the future of cookbooks and content delivery given trends in consumer interest in food and cooking as well as the growth of online content and digital options. It summarizes a panel discussion on three avenues of exploration: content generation, monetization, and social engagement. Regarding content, it explores curated vs user-generated content and trends. For monetization, it discusses opportunities within and outside books such as ads, affiliate stores, and paying for recipes. For social engagement, it examines book-centric and food platform opportunities and the role of authors and bloggers. It presents a case study of an online food publisher that seeds vertical sites from its backlist and monetizes via ads, stores, and co

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!