Last night, I attended a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) seminar with a panel of notable food bloggers that included editors from AOL Food, The Nibble, The Food Section and Apartment Therapy. One of the hot discussion topics was whether or not the abundance of food blogs caused Gourmet Magazine to fold. The general consensus was that it was strictly a business decision based on lost advertising revenue, falling readership and the cost of paper. In my opinion, falling magazine readership could be a result of the wide variety of high-end “foodie” content, including recipes, now available for free online.
The panel of bloggers also gave their view on the current at-home cooking trends, which included:
- Quality, healthy eating
- Celebrity Chefs
- Gluten-free cooking
- Using bacon in unique recipes (Example: Chocolate Chip cookies with Bacon)
- Slow cookers and slow cooked recipes
- DIY Ingredients (Example: Salad Dressing)
- Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes
A question was raised over how the recent FTC Disclosure Policy would affect food bloggers. All of the bloggers talked about adding a tagline to their blogs with a disclaimer about where many products came from. While these bloggers do receive and review products from marketers, they also write about products that they find at their local grocery stores. One blogger, for example, said that she goes to the store to buy the products that she’s writing about, to ensure that her readers will be able to purchase them.
The panel also discussed how unfair they thought it was that the new FTC Disclosure Policy does not extend to newspapers. The bloggers claimed that their traditional media counterparts often receive free products, just like they do, yet they are not regulated.
Overall, the seminar provided useful insight into the world of a food blogger. As social media continues to gain momentum, it is important that we adapt our traditional public relations methods when communicating to social media content providers. Just like journalists working at traditional media outlets, bloggers are media content providers. Thus, PR should lead the way in establishing meaningful relationships with bloggers, as well as those providing content on Twitter, Facebook and other social media vehicles.
Megan
