There are very few support mechanisms for independent publications such as The Food Section. Aside from a few highly competitive grant programs and several active peer networking platforms, about all that’s available to a newsletter like ours is free consulting services.
In fact, “available” might not be a strong enough word in this context. Well-heeled journalism organizations aren’t keen to distribute money directly to media outlets but underwriting the cost of sessions with a short-term advisor, coach, or mentor is very much within their comfort zones.
Sometimes, these industry vets are terrific. More frequently though, they represent the worst of the consulting racket, meaning they have a ready-made solution regardless of the situation. For example, one consultant suggested charging 99 cents for a TFS subscription, saying the scheme had worked well for some of the biggest papers in the country.
I don’t run one of the biggest papers in the country, so can’t weigh in on whether slashing prices to near-nothing is a good idea for them (although I’m not crazy about money-making strategies that exploit common foibles, like forgetting to cancel subscriptions when the introductory price expires.)
But there’s not a chance of that gambit working for The Food Section, because $99 isn’t a made-up number. It’s what we need to pay our bills.
For example, Sheeka Sanahori, our Atlanta bureau chief, recently received the following response to a public records request:
In other words, we need to sell three annual subscriptions at the current rate just to fully vet a story tip. Without any outside sources of funding, we can’t produce food journalism armed only with our readers’ spare change.
Still, in the consultant’s defense, it’s true that plenty of people who can’t afford TFS would like to join the subscribers’ roster. Fortunately, we’ve devised a better solution to that problem—thanks to the incredibly generous support of an anonymous benefactor who believes this newsletter deserves to be read more widely.
Our unnamed advocate has made a four-figure gift to help subsidize paid subscriptions to The Food Section. With this donation, we’re able to offer 100 annual subscriptions for $20 apiece on a first-come, first-serve basis.
In other words, under the terms of this arrangement, TFS doesn’t take a financial hit—and neither does your pocketbook.
As close observers of the food journalism scene know, a few new media organizations have cropped up since the start of the year, asking for money and pledging independent coverage of the culinary sphere. It’s unclear what will become of them, but I’d genuinely love to see them all succeed. After all, our industry’s recent drift toward collaboration and cooperation is understandable, but when newspapers flourished, they were intensely competitive. There’s nothing better for democracy than rival news outlets racing to uncover wrongdoing—and nothing more fun for reporters.
So, in the spirit of competition, here’s why I believe your food media dollars are best spent with TFS today.
Five years ago, before we’d published our first edition, we promised that what you wouldn’t find in The Food Section was “breathless new restaurant coverage orchestrated by swanky PR firms; mindless parroting of popular opinions or reflexive veneration of popular people; unsubstantiated rumors, unearned praise, unfair treatment, or unquestioning acceptance of authority.”
Instead, we guaranteed intelligent food journalism that helps make sense of the South’s extraordinary and complex culinary scene. Since then, we’ve made good on our promise more than 800 times, bringing you stories that fit the bill every weekday morning at 8 a.m. Eastern.
Since the start of March alone, we’ve published 40 scrupulously edited stories from 16 different writers, including deep dives into:
- The likely fate of one of the rural South’s most cherished restaurant traditions in the face of surging beef prices
- How immigration raids in New Orleans upended the lives of Latino restaurant workers
- AI’s encroachment on Facebook food groups which were previously the main forums for dining conversations across the region
- Tensions between retirees to the Carolinas who think of surplus deer as a charming part of the landscape, and food bank workers seeking protein for their growing list of clients
- Inadequate coverage of Black food culture by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the paper’s new leadership
All those stories were sent exclusively to the paying subscribers who made our journalism possible. For just $20, we hope you’ll join them.
Thank you for your support.
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