The Vox Media meals writer Eater is popping 20 this 12 months, a milestone the publication plans to mark with a brand new initiative designed to replicate each its legacy and its evolving enterprise mannequin.
On Sept. 20, Eater will host the primary installment of Off Menu, a brand new annual franchise combining reside occasions, editorial protection, and social content material. The tentpole occasion, set to happen at Storied in New York Metropolis, anchors a summer-long slate that features Eater’s first print journal, a significant digital editorial bundle, chef collaborations, and new video collection.
With readers spending much less time on web sites and extra time on social platforms, AI-enabled search, or in apps, Eater is investing in experiences and merchandise that have interaction audiences past conventional net site visitors.
“Folks come to us each day and belief what we propose for them,” stated Eater editor in chief Stephanie Wu. “What we’re doing is bringing that have to life for them in a brand new method.”
Off Menu: an increasing tentpole
The inaugural Off Menu occasion will carry collectively greater than 500 visitors and at the very least 5 sponsors, together with Capital One Eating, Unattainable Meals, Vitamix, and Cathay Pacific. Single tickets will price $175 and embrace meals and drinks.
The occasion is an element of a bigger pattern towards experiential programming throughout media, based on Scott Newman, cofounder of Work x Work, a artistic company that works with cultural manufacturers.
“It’s not sufficient to simply be an internet writer anymore,” Newman stated. “Good publishers are recognizing this and constructing out these verticals. By leaning into experiential, it tells me they perceive occasions are the good differentiator—it’s about constructing neighborhood in actual life.”
Alongside the occasion, Eater will publish a commemorative print journal, that includes one-on-one conversations with culinary figures like Samin Nosrat, together with restaurant lists, essays, quizzes, and infographics.
The editorial focus of the primary Off Menu will look at how eating tradition has advanced over the previous 20 years, partly to focus on the function of Eater in chronicling that maturation. Future iterations of Off Menu, nonetheless, will discover new themes.
Along with textual content, the writer will unveil new long-form movies that includes cooks like Dominique Ansel, in addition to new quick collection just like the celebrity-driven present, Let’s Do Lunch. Eating places throughout the nation will even be taking part in a collection of collaborative meals drops, relaunching or reimagining iconic dishes.
A broader diversification technique
This pivot towards reside occasions and off-web merchandise displays the broader pressures going through digital media. As social platforms throttle referral site visitors and synthetic intelligence upends search, publishers are in search of various income streams.
In 2025, Eater expects to generate roughly 20% of its income from franchises like Off Menu and Eater Underneath Wraps, based on Geoff Schiller, chief income officer at Vox Media.
Along with model partnerships and ticket gross sales, Eater can be increasing its slate of occasions in 2025 past meals, exploring potential tie-ins with cultural moments like main sporting occasions.
“From a accomplice lens, separate from ticketed income, our model accomplice income comes from the bigger ecosystem we’ve constructed, of which experiential is part,” Schiller stated. “The belief and curatorial capabilities that Eater affords its customers are a powerful protecting moat relative to the specter of AI-related content material.”
Going offline
Whereas occasions and print mark a more moderen income focus for Eater, the model has lengthy invested in off-site channels.
The writer has a long-standing presence on YouTube, the place it boasts almost 4 million subscribers. Mixed with cookbooks and branded journey guides, these channels type a diversification technique aimed toward decreasing dependency on web-based readership.
Moreover, Eater launched its first cell app in December, which has since been downloaded over 127,000 occasions, based on Wu.
“We aren’t proof against the pressures of digital media,” Wu stated. “However what we wish to do is construct on this loyal viewers that has been studying Eater for thus lengthy, and work out how we are able to construct extra connections.”
Viewers numbers are up almost 50% month over month, pushed by new video codecs and expanded social distribution, based on Schiller. However it’s Off Menu that greatest encapsulates the following chapter of Eater.
“Eater has permission to manifest in several methods,” Schiller stated. “Off Menu isn’t nearly a one-time occasion. It’s about constructing a brand new form of ongoing relationship with our viewers.”
