Cooking Magazine Mayhem
The How We Love Food series celebrates the iPad launch of How We Love Food, an annual collection of recipes from Yvonne Tocquigny, founder and CEO of Tocquigny, and focuses on the convergence of food, marketing, and technology. Download the app now for just $1.99, and all proceeds will be donated to nonprofit Urban Roots.
Growing up, I can remember the abundance of cooking magazines my mom subscribed to and her impulsive purchases of Cooking Light in the grocery store checkout line. After she would scour several magazines to find just the right recipe, she would only tear out one-or-two recipes per magazine that our family would even consider tasting (my sisters and I was quite the picky bunch). At the time, I just figured that this sort of behavior was normal.
Looking back on these childhood memories, I realize what a waste purchasing all of those magazines was. Of the 30+ recipes found in a single issue, my mom only saved one or two for her go-to recipe collection, and three if it was a REALLY good issue loaded with Italian recipes. Speaking with my mom recently regarding this topic, I found that she no longer subscribes to or purchases cooking magazines. When asked why, I found her response rather interesting: “Why would I pay around $30/month in cooking magazine subscription fees, when I can search thousands of cooking blogs for free recipes whenever I want?” Hate to say it, but she’s got a point.
This made me think about how the rise of social sharing has impacted our purchasing behavior. When we have unlimited, free resources at our fingertips, why not take advantage of that? These days there are thousands of cooking blogs, inexpensive iPhone apps, and friends who post their favorite recipes via Facebook for free. It seems that if cooking magazines want to continue to be competitive, they will need to find a way to compete with my favorite cooking blog. Rather than Mom planning out her family meals for the week, technology and social sharing has allowed her to quickly browse hundreds of recipes to find the best fit for dinner. Like everything else, technology and sharing have changed the way we traditionally search for recipes.
