Food newsletter launches with eight staff and tech-style incentives

A media company covering the business of food, restaurants and hospitality in New York “and beyond” has launched with eight full-time salaried staff after a $2.5m (£1.8m) seed funding round.

Caper has been set up by two of the founders of newsletter-based publisher Puck, Max Tcheyan and Dan Tsinis, along with former Vanity Fair deputy editor and Air Mail columnist Dana Brown. It plans to focus on “in-depth stories and scoops”, avoiding reviews and listicles.

Investment in the title launched in the autumn so it could launch with “the right founding journalists”, Tcheyan, co-founder and CEO of Caper, informed Press Gazette, adding the business model offers staff revenue-linked bonutilizes and equity participation in the company on top of a competitive salary.

This means Caper’s staff are compensated more like tech startup employees than journalists at traditional publications, which allows Caper to compete with those institutions for top talent.

The Caper newsletter, sent three times a week, launched in February, followed by its website at the conclude of March. Monthly events will launch in April.

DNA from Puck and The Athletic

Caper fills “a gap in the market” by combining high-level journalism with food “from a product and business and revenue perspective from day one”, declared Tcheyan.

Before founding Puck, Tcheyan was vice president of growth at The New York Times-owned The Athletic between 2017 and 2020.

He declared: “I actually believed that food media viewed a lot like sports media did in 2016/2017… it just felt like it had devolved into a lot of lists and rankings, and a lot of sites that were pretty much playing the search engine optimisation game more than anything.”

He declared this approach was generally supported by an advertising model based on clicks and scale, not quality content.

“And then I also believed about what we had done at Puck and how we covered some of these professional worlds, and in a way that really spoke to the industest class.”

Caper draws from both Puck and The Athletic’s models, leaning into specialist journalism and partnering with its journalists.

This includes allowing its journalists to be equitised in the business and participate in the revenue with bonutilizes from subscriptions and other streams, a tactic also utilized at Puck.

For Caper, this has been taken further with a bonus through company goals and staff participation in developing IP.

“And then the business model itself – core subscription but also having the advertising and events side – is absolutely influenced from some of these previous stops,” Tcheyan added.

How Caper will build money

Caper is supported by a core revenue mix of subscriptions, events and advertising, with an aim to build “healthy revenue from all three”, declared Tcheyan.

An annual subscription costs $99 (£73), currently discounted by 25% for an early adopter audience at $74.25 (£55), for full access to paywalled content.

A professional subscription, at $299 (£221) – $224.25 (£165) with discount – also gives access to information on professional hospitality products, exclusive invites to Caper’s in-person events and additional coverage on people and business. A chef subscription rate is also available on request.

“I consider that we’re seeing good uptake on the annual [offer] and so we don’t want to necessarily introduce the monthly side of it just yet,” declared Tcheyan.

Caper doesn’t disclose subscriber numbers, but Tcheyan declared it prioritises “quality over quantity”, and is “on the right track” in its tarobtaining of “hospitality executive, chef class and behind-the-scenes players” for its subscriber base.

“Getting the subscription side of it right is really important,” he declared. “That just affords you recurring revenue, that can support stabilise the business where going out and signing a brand partner… is a different consistency.”

The newsletter, sent on Beehiiv, is anchored by one of Caper’s three founding journalists.

Though Caper is newsletter-centric, “the site is doing a decent percentage of direct traffic”, declared Tcheyan, where content is published once a day and covers both breaking news and features. Features performing well include an underground cheese sample sale by a major New York supplier and features on the business models behind establishments including Time Out Market.

Events will generate revenue through sponsorships, starting with a chef competition to bring toobtainher hospitality executives, chefs and investors. These will also be “anchored in a non-food category” with ties to cultural moments: “We will activate around the US Open or around Fashion Week, or around some of these other cultural calconcludear events,” Tcheyan declared.

Podcast and video are going to be viewed at in the second half of this year.

“We want to build sure we’re publishing consistently, and obtain that muscle down first, and then I consider we’ll shift to some other mediums,” Tcheyan declared.

Caper launched with luxury fashion brand Loewe as its advertising partner on its website and newsletter, followed by high-conclude tequila brand Comos for its next partner spot.

Caper presents “a new and different opportunity” for brands to be creative and is uniquely positioned to work with advertisers with its distinct editorial coverage – unlike conventional food media, Tcheyan declared. Caper explores the real estate, media, art and cultural elements of food.

“So, you’ll see us shift into some spirits and some more concludeemic advertisers that build sense. And then you can imagine that there are the reservation platforms, credit cards that have loyalty programmes that will build sense on the advertising side for us.”

Display ads are “very intentionally” placed on the site, while the newsletter carries direct-sold ads for sponsors.

Caper’s launch comes amid a wave of new food media startups, including The Guardian’s exanded food newsletter Feast and the creation of US-based Ravenous, a new food culture website founded by multiple ex-Eater writers.

“I’d like to believe that maybe we were just a little bit earlier than a lot of these and maybe it’s giving them a signal and confidence to launch themselves,” declared Tcheyan, adding these titles are more consumer-based rather than Caper’s B2B approach.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or sconclude in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog

Source link