Bon Appétit
Bon Appétit is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, and has been in publication since 1956. Bon Appétit has been recognized for increasing its online presence in recent years through the use of social media, publishing recipes on their website, and maintaining a popular YouTube channel.[2]
For the song, see Bon Appétit (song). For other uses, see Bon Appétit (disambiguation).Editor
Food and Entertaining
10 issues per year
1,527,365[1]
December 1956
United States
New York, New York, U.S.
English
History[edit]
Early history (1956–2010)[edit]
Bon Appétit was started in 1956 as a liquor store giveaway and was first published as a bimonthly magazine in December of that year in Chicago.[3][4][5] It was acquired by M. Frank Jones of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1965.[4][6] Jones was owner, editor, and publisher until 1970, when he sold the magazine to the Pillsbury Company, who in turn sold it to Knapp Communications in 1975. Jones remained the editor of the magazine through both of these transfers. Knapp Communications also owned and published Architectural Digest, which was edited by Paige Rense. Jones recruited Rense to restructure Bon Appétit. She converted the magazine from a giveaway into a subscription-based, monthly magazine, as it remains today.[4][7][8] Rense became the editor-in-chief in 1976. Condé Nast Publications, the current owners, purchased Knapp Communications in 1993. Bon Appétit's sister publication was Gourmet, before the latter was discontinued in October 2009.[9]
Move to New York (2010–2019)[edit]
The magazine's headquarters was moved from Los Angeles to New York City in early 2011.[10] Concurrent with the move, Barbara Fairchild, the editor since 2000, was succeeded by editor Adam Rapoport, who was previously the Style Editor at Condé Nast's GQ magazine. Prior to joining GQ, Rapoport edited the restaurant section at Time Out New York and worked as an editor and writer for the James Beard Foundation's publications office.[11]
In 2011, Bon Appétit launched the "Bite me" advertising campaign, which had an estimated $500,000 budget that included print and online ads, billboards, posters, and sweepstakes. The ad campaign came after a period of "sluggish performance" following its sibling magazine Gourmet's cancellation in 2009, during which a limited number of readers and advertisers shifted to Bon Appétit. During the same period, other food magazines, such as Every Day With Rachael Ray and Food Network Magazine thrived. Bon Appétit sold 632 ad pages in 2012, which was a one percent increase from 625 ad pages sold in 2009 but a decline of 27 percent from the 867 ad pages sold in 2008.[12] Condé Nast reported 1,452,953 paid subscriptions and 88,516 single copies in 2012 for the period ending November 2012. The median age of its audience was 48.4, of which 74% were female.[13]
In August 2014, Condé Nast combined Bon Appétit and Epicurious into a single digital food platform led by Pamela Drucker Mann, Bon Appétit Senior Vice President and Publisher. Adam Rapoport was named Editorial Director of Epicurious.[14]
Starting in the late 2010s, Bon Appétit was noted for increasing their web presence through the use of social media, their website, and their YouTube channel.[15] From 2018 to 2019, Bon Appétit saw a 40 percent increase in video revenue and a 64 percent increase in subscriptions generated from digital channels such as social media plugs, podcasts, and newsletters. The company worked to leverage the popularity of Bon Appétit's YouTube and streaming channels towards increasing magazine readership. This included the November 2019 edition of the magazine, which had eight separate covers featuring the staff of the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen seen on the channels. As well, advertiser interest increased, with many companies being drawn to the connections the shows’ hosts have with their audience. These companies included Goose Island Beer, The Mushroom Council, Mitsubishi, Kerrygold and Glossier.[16][17]
Racism allegations and fallout (2020–present)[edit]
On June 8, 2020, Adam Rapoport resigned as editor-in-chief after a photo of him in brownface was posted by food and wine writer Tammie Teclemariam on Twitter and sparked widespread criticism.[18] Rapoport also received criticism after food editor Sohla El-Waylly accused the magazine of discriminating against employees of color, claiming they were subject to lesser pay than their non-minority counterparts.[19][20] Amanda Shapiro took on the role of interim editor-in-chief soon after.[21]
In an interview with Business Insider, Rapoport's former assistant Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, who is black, revealed that she had not been given a pay raise in almost 3 years with the company and was subject to numerous racist remarks and microaggressions, with a number of other employees of color agreeing that there was a "'toxic' culture of microaggression and exclusion" at the company.[22] Vice President and Head of Programming and Lifestyle at Condé Nast, Matt Duckor, apologized and later resigned after past tweets seen as racist and homophobic were revealed, as well as accusations of being complicit or directly responsible for the pay disparities at the company.[23][24][25]
In August 2020, two months after the initial fallout, several members of the Test Kitchen announced they would not be returning to film videos for the Bon Appétit YouTube channel due to a continued lack of progress in resolving issues at Condé Nast Entertainment.[26][27][28] Additionally, Walker-Hartshorn and Jesse Sparks, the only two black editorial staff members at Bon Appétit, quit on the same day.[29] Dawn Davis, a black woman, was named the new editor-in-chief on August 27, effective November 2, 2020. This followed the announcements of Sonia Chopra as the new executive editor and Marcus Samuelsson as a brand adviser and guest editor.[30][31][32]
In November 2021, online criticism of the magazine's work environment peaked again as former employee, now influencer, Hannah Neuman (@unluckyp1ckle) publicized her experiences working for the magazine as a "non-white, non-wealthy person."[33] Her TikTok series, which amassed over 4.5 million views, recounted instances of racism and abuse that she allegedly suffered while working as a sales assistant alongside Ryan Walker-Hartshorn and Jesse Sparks.[34] The series also criticized the practices of the company, and called out white staffers by name for participating in and profiting from the systematic racism at the brand and throughout Condé Nast Entertainment.[35][36]
Condé Nast employees, including all Bon Appétit employees, formed a union in September 2022.[37][38][39]