What happened to Chowhound? www.chow.com

From the NYTimes

August 16, 2006
A Food Web Site, Spiced With Attitude
By LORNE MANLY

HIPNESS is rarely a prime ingredient in the most popular Web sites devoted to food and drink. Chow.com, a new food Web site that begins its rollout next week, hopes to inject that sensibility into its smorgasbord of recipes, restaurant reviews, party hints, video tutorials and coverage of the marketing and culture of food. All this is aimed at a younger audience than the major food Web sites tend to attract.

Chow.com comes from an unlikely purveyor: CNET Networks, a Web publisher best known for technology news and reviews and computer game tips and tricks. Though the foray seems an odd fit, it dovetails with the company’s strategy of expanding to general-interest passions of the 25- to 45-year-olds it seeks, whether child-rearing (urbanbaby.com), music (mp3.com) or television (tv.com).

For the required gustatory intelligence, the company earlier this year bought the remains of a short-lived magazine called Chow, bringing along its founder, Jane Goldman. And since every self-respecting Web site needs a virtual community attached to it, CNET Networks also acquired Chowhound, an online message board for the food-obsessed, where culinary explorers seek and debate everything from the best stewed octopus in Astoria to the ultimate doughnut in Maspeth. (The New York Times Company has a content syndication agreement with different CNET Networks properties, the technology-focused cnet.com and news.com.)

Cracking the consciousness of Web surfers will not be easy for chow.com. The prodding of the Food Network cable channel powers the Web site of the same name, and provides the profits for original shows for the Web. On Monday, for example, a Web show called “Dave Does’’ made its debut, in which the chef and author Dave Lieberman scopes out the latest food trends.

In addition, epicurious.com, owned by the company that publishes two of the most influential food magazines, Gourmet and Bon Appétit, profits from that connection, while AOL Food reaps the benefits of one of the most popular Internet portals. And although fans of the iconoclastic Chowhound could be the core audience of chow.com, some members may rebel against the notion of its “going corporate,” much as early fans of an indie rock group turn against the band after a major record label snaps it up.

Ms. Goldman, a former editor of The Industry Standard, the chronicler of the Internet boom and then bust, started Chow in 2004 for an audience she believed was underserved: a younger, hipper clientele passionate about food but perhaps not too skilled at preparing it. The plans for chow.com call for retaining the magazine’s sensibility and making the contributions of its users a substantial part of the mix.

The new site begins the Web equivalent of an out-of-town tryout next Wednesday. People who go to chow.com in the next week will be able to register to sample the site’s goods before it opens widely next month; the Chowhound message boards are already available.

Though chow.com will have a test kitchen and has licensed recipes like those from Roy Finamore’s book “Tasty,” executives know they’ll never be able to match the libraries of Epicurious, the Food Network’s Web site, or the popular site allrecipes.com. But it hopes to provide clever ways to search for those recipes, like what to eat before a night of drinking and dancing into the wee hours.

In addition to the usual food site basics, there will be video tutorials for offbeat projects like making your own root beer or curing your own meat. A party package will include music playlists, tips on how to get people to leave and the chance for users to send along analysis of their own parties, including videos.

In “Show Us Your Kitchen,” Chow-blessed contractors will invade volunteers’ homes to remodel. The “My Chow” feature, beyond allowing for the sharing of recipes and restaurant recommendations, will let users find like-minded dinner companions for the times their friends are too cheap to splurge for the likes of a Thomas Keller dinner. And a “Nagging Question” section aims to offer a pop-culture sensibility. After reading that a competitive eater downed 44 lobsters, Ms. Goldman wondered, If you eat 11.3 pounds of food — which is what those lobsters yielded — do you gain 11.3 pounds? The answer: for a few minutes, yes.

CNET Networks will try to meld the personalities of Chow and Chowhound by sending Jim Leff, the founder of Chowhound, on an eat-across-America mission called Chow Tour. This week, Mr. Leff, who will gladly travel 30 miles out of his way for a slightly better muffin, heads south into barbecue country, with some planned stops at Kentucky bourbon and spoonbread festivals.

Since it began in 1997, Chowhound has attracted a fervent audience of food lovers, but its minuscule budget made scanning the site as enjoyable as reading the phone book. CNET Networks installed better software and design in June, but popularity breeds complaints.

Robert Sietsema, the restaurant critic for The Village Voice and a contributor to Gourmet, said he still finds the Chowhound boards helpful, but he said the quality of the discourse over the past few years has declined as more dabblers and dilettantes came onboard. “There’s less interest in the signature find,” he said. Instead of people scouring off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods, there are obvious questions, like “Where can I take my parents after a Broadway show?’’

Mr. Leff disputes that the proportion has changed, and vows that the swankier surroundings will not subvert the site’s mission: finding unsung “deliciousness” not beholden to the marketing machine. CNET, he said, has promised him that it will not sell restaurant ads on the Chowhound message boards. But the rest of the site is open to marketing tie-ins. Sub-Zero is a sponsor.

Blurring the lines between advertising and journalism is not a problem to everyone. The second most popular food Web site in July, behind FoodNetwork.com, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, was kraftfoods.com, which has recipes, videos (how to prepare balsamic-marinated flank steak, for example), and articles from the Kraft-sponsored magazine Food & Family.

“Who delivers that information doesn’t seem to matter, as long as the ads don’t interrupt the experience,” said Beth Higbee, senior vice president of Scripps Networks Interactive, which runs Food Network.com. Chow.com may have indie cred. But, Ms. Higbee asked, “Is that enough to emerge from the fray?”