A bright spot in culinary print media

The past several years have been rough in the newspaper industry. Mergers, mass layoffs, and shrinking sections have been the order of the day, precipitated by falling revenues. Stand-alone food sections were among the many casualties of this decline, with prominent papers reducing staff or eliminating the food section altogether, especially in the print edition. Today we learned a bit of good news on this front, as The L.A. Times announced that after a nearly eight-year hiatus, its stand-alone food section would be returning to print.

The paper said it has also hired new personnel and made editorial changes to help keep these new pages filled. The section’s staff includes veterans like Peter Meehan and Ben Mims (both of the late Lucky Peach), and Genevieve Ko, who has co-authored several cookbooks in addition to her editing work for major publications. 

The move is part of a series of changes at the Times, which was purchased last year by billionaire surgeon and entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Siong. Recently installed executive editor Normal Pearlstine commented on the change. “We view Los Angeles as the nation’s food capital, and the print section, which will serve as a weekly digest of our daily coverage, is an expression of our determination to provide the world’s best, most authoritative and comprehensive coverage of it,” he said in a statement. 

The new section, which will appear in the Thursday paper, is set to debut in April. Here’s to hoping that this becomes a trend.