Chowhound defined a category by connecting a sprawling worldwide community of food experts and food explorers. How many online first sites can boast a 20 year run?

i had the good fortune to GM Chowhound/Chow briefly in 2012 for CBSi. In response to some earlier comments about fumbles and potential mismanagement I can offer some macro level observations.

By the time I joined CH the advertising world had shifted dramatically. CNET used to be a public company with massive ad revenue but by 2012 it had been acquired by CBS to upgrade the media company with digital native DNA. The endemic ad world is what was shifting to cause that move. Big brands which would regularly spend in categories such as food, gaming, TV, parenting, etc were now moving those dollars to Facebook and Google targeted and performance based ads. CH, like most CNET properties did not have the scale to compete on pay for performance targeted ads. So those dollars shriveled. Very few food industry buyers were still spending: eggs, milk, alcohol but not much more ... oh and car brands like Volvo that liked food oriented customers for some reason.

With food brand dollars shrinking how do you make up revenue to sustain a division focused on food enthusiasts? You either scale massively, shift to where general ad dollars still have a premium (video ads) or looks for other revenue options like subscription. I think the CH corp team tried all three options to find a sustainable path perhaps with the exception of subscription. Even if all CH members subscribed for $10/year it was not enough revenue to drive meaningful contribution to CBSi's revenue number. It might have been enough to support a couple full time people as an independent and possibly the cost of hosting ... maybe. Most of the money that publishing / discussion sites can still tap into are video ads and CH never really had a huge video footprint after the CBSI buyout.

So that was the landscape from 2012 when I had my eyes on it and through the CBSi years. I think the premium ad revenue got a little bit better but the food brand big $$ spends were gone forever.

Now with Red Ventures (which I have no inside knowledge about) I think the way of making revenue has shifted again because brand ad dollars continued falling away to FB and Google. From what I understand RV makes most of its money through high value conversions to smart phone sales, phone plans, streaming plans or large TVs. When you look at it from that lens then what can CH organically drive by way of funnels to $600+ hardware purchases or subscriptions. There are only a few food subscriptions that could be driven like Blue Apron or Trade Coffee but most of them are not high $$ and most use targeted ads.

None of the above reflects on the power and value of CH to all of you (us) that contributed over the years. I do wish that a way to move CH out to a non-profit or a low cost buyback had been possible. It is a bit expensive to run CH but as I mentioned, a membership yearly might be enough to sustain it.

It's harder than ever to make steady dollars to sustain a publishing site, much less an expert and enthusiast conversation site. Medium is fighting the good fight around open publishing. Reddit has scale and is trying to find strong monetization models.

I am not sure where the Home Churned butter is sourced but I used to work at a supermarket chain that had its own line of store branded goods. In almost all cases the store brand was just a repackage of a more recognizable local brand but priced for less. This was true for milk, eggs, butter, yogurt and even frozen strawberries. My guess is that Sav-a-lot is rebranding from a regional dairy which has a name you recognize. The person who stocks the dairy aisle will likely know because it will come in with the same shipment from that dairy.