Some HOers know that I am no fan of Serious Eats (it’s an advertising mill), however I haven’t seen mention here of some news y’all may find of interest.
Serious Eats sold to Dotdash, the owners of The Spruce (another advertising mill), last September. The website redesign in the last couple of days is the consequence of that. The fans on Reddit and Facebook are very unhappy. A lot of material including older recipes has disappeared and some search functionality is gone. The rumors are that a new subscription model is looming.
No loss as far as I’m concerned but a lot of people like SE.
I thought something was different. Thanks for the heads up. I used to sign in to comment, but now the sign in is to save recipes takes you to a relish account…
Working on this one right now, but I have several favorites.
If I am not mistaken, they have eliminated reader comments. When Kenji was there full-time, the site was worthwhile. That banner of editors speaks for itself—a showcase of publicity hounds…
I don’t think of him as leader and king, but if so, I have to ask, could nothing be worse than that? I think there are worse things than making a buck on being a leader and king of advertising food and recipes.
On the other hand, if there was going to be a peer reviewed "Journal Club " of food and recipes, I’d love to see it. I may not pay for it, but I would love to see it.
Ariel Kanter is the one really in charge, responsible for product placement including having Mr. López-Alt front and face all the advertiser products in his refrigerator, driving citations into articles and recipes, and telling parents that they are bad if they don’t send their kids to college with $2,000 of cookware that draws 90 amps and will burn down the dorm.
Indeed. I care about exactly two things with regard to SE and its ilk: is the information useful? is the writing good? if the answer to both those questions is yes - hell, it doesn’t even need to be both - then I don’t give a rat’s behind about how thirsty the contributors are or whether certain products are being promoted. It’s not like it’s difficult to tell. And since I’m not the sort of person to buy a thing because some rando on a website thinks it’s neat (or is paid to say that it’s neat), I don’t feel terribly endangered by the fact that websites run ads, and some websites are too dependent on press releases. Better that than I have to pay a subscription fee.
I agree with you in principal. It’s product placement that irritates me. Mr. Lopez-Alt rummaging through his refrigerator in videos showing the labels of products that have nothing to do with the topic just ahem [insert gentle expletive here] me off. The $2,000 college prep article makes me livid.
Yes, YouTube channel. I’ve only watched a few as I find him distasteful, but all have included rummaging through his fridge and bringing SE advertiser products into camera line.
