Digital travel and culinary magazine La Carte publishes first issue

La Carte magazine has published its first quarterly issue. The Toronto-based digital culinary and travel title has as its first theme food and drink. Maryam Siddiqui explains in her editor's letter that the debut explores “the newest drinks and hottest restaurants around the world and shines a spotlight on the innovative culinary characters behind them.” 

The 44-page launch issue was compiled by Siddiqi, Alex Laws, Barry Hertz, Karen Cleveland, Federica Maraboli and art director Genèvieve Biloski. Included in the first issue is:

• The best eats in financial districts: from Toronto to Singapore, there is a renaissance in cool places to eat in these neighbourhoods
• Cool culinary tourism: from catching your own lobster for a beach-side feast, to truffle hunting and dining in a castle
• Scotland's finest drink -- not whisky! The best tea in the world can be found at a small plantation, the size of a large garden, an hour’s drive north of Edinburgh
• Canada's only true desert, Osoyoos, B.C., and its hopping food and wine scene

Advertisers/sponsors in the first issue include Wines of South Africa, Intrepid Travel, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and Trafalgar/The Travel Corporation. 

In addition to the magazine, La Carte publishes a newsletter as well as posting to social media. La Carte's next quarterly issue is planned for early December 2015. The theme "Go For Broke" will explore luxury travel, from first-class experiences for pets to haute cuisine on the high seas.

Meredith launches print companion of Allrecipes.com site

Meredith Corporation has launched a print version of the very successful online food site Allrecipes.com. Meredith bought Allrecipes.com from The Reader's Digest Association Inc. in 2012 for $175 million. 

According to the company, a test issue last spring resulted in about 400,000 paid orders. The website gets more than a billion annual visitors, mostly women. 

While the new publication may be considered to be going against the prevailing print-to-digital stream, it also recognizes that there is a continuing appetite for beautiful, tangible printed magazines. According to a story in Adweek,

Food is also one of a few categories where advertisers are spending in print these days; food and food products advertising was one of the fastest-growing ad categories in the third quarter, with ad pages up 6.4 percent, per Publishers Information Bureau. For its launch issue, Allrecipes got ads from Diamond of California and Hershey’s, along with non-food marketers like Chevrolet and Crest.

The new six-time magazine, has a guaranteed rate base of 500,000 and a subscription is $12 a year (cover price $4.99). It will be up against sub, newsstand and checkout powerhouses such as the HGTV and Food Network titles, built on established TV brands, as well as longstanding food books such as Cooking Light, Bon Appétit and Meredith's own Eating Well. Allrecipes magazine will have a TV component, The Better Show, which airs on the Hallmark Channel.

The new magazine was promoted with a special edition booklet "sneak preview" included with subscriber copies of Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Family Fun, More, Midwest Living, Eating Well, Parents, Fitness, and Traditional Home. Proof of the power of having a large, diverse, multi-title company.