Kandessa Digital to cease Web+Digital Publications for the premium foodservice industry including Eatery Pulse Magazine, Eatery Pulse Boston, Restaurants and Franchising Magazine

Kendall Sinclair

BOSTON , August 21, 2013 (press release) – Inspired, Sustainable Kandessa Digital Closes Publishing Operations, Sees Returning Shift in Foodservice Publishing to More Genuine, Authentic Content and Transparency

Kandessa Digital, an inspired, sustainable consultancy, marketing and media services firm, publishing in the premium foodservice publication space, has reluctantly ceased Web+Digital operations. Web+Digital publications Eatery Pulse Magazine, Eatery Pulse Boston and Restaurants and Franchising Magazine will also be closed.

After a journey of informing and inspiring over 100,000 restaurant professionals cumulatively across the country, the firm said it will no longer publish its own magazines.

"We no longer have a vested interest in creating and promoting our own publications within the foodservice channel, except for the betterment of industry leaders and the benefit of our own clients," said Rick Zambrano, director, Kandessa Digital. "Therefore, we have shuttered these digital and sustainable publications.

Zambrano will continue to offer private consultation for clients who are looking to optimize content marketing and build content-based web portals and learning centers. "Bad content hurts businesses and brands," he added. "Therefore I'm interested in continuing to work with membership associations, suppliers, and organizations that are developing microsites, magazines and portals with an authentic voice and inspiring content in foodservice, as well as moving on to the next steps in my career."

Content marketing has great opportunity for publishers and businesses within the foodservice vertical

An analyst in former roles and a veteran of foodservice for over 15 years, as well as a publisher for nearly five years, Zambrano identified emerging and developing trends in publishing and content marketing:

Local is the next big thing: Top publishers in foodservice, like Penton Media, MacFadden Communications, Zoomba Group and CSP have created exceptional marketplaces of information and continue to raise the bar on foodservice publishing. Large-scale publishers in the vertical are challenged to create locally-relevant channels of information and regional publications continue to monopolize local-market information. This will change over the next 18 to 36 months as bigger players eye the local marketplace.
Suppliers and restaurant portfolio equity firms hold big key in future of compelling content in the industry. As more suppliers and distributors embrace content marketing, they partner more deeply with industry stakeholders and become more engaging by helping disseminate best practices and education. They'll also be at the forefront of embracing and backing new collaboration tools for foodservice.
Curation has short shelf-life for publishers: The art of curation has become a useful tool for thought leaders but has limited benefit in publishing. The process of genuinely creating inspired content, in actuality, is a discipline and a form of art. With limited benefit and not existing in a transparent process, current email forms of curation publishing and content-borrowing face many challenges. Mounds of growth in content will limit the efficacy of curation in publishing and its benefit to readers. "As readers are forced to go through three pages and five ads to get to the original source of great content, there will be a backlash over the next two years," said Zambrano. "Sadly, that backlash and the accompanying stigma will threaten those business models."
Inspired content creators will emerge successful. Content commoditizers will fail rapidly. As information overload becomes more pervasive in business-to-business channels, inspired content with an authentic voice and that stands out will be something in which industry leaders invest. A word can be easily bought from all the way around the world, but bad, unauthentic content has a large value-eroding effect for cut-above companies that choose to generate and/or disseminate it.
Public relations (PR) professionals are well-positioned for the social-mobile-digital shift. PR professionals are the ones who have the most skill in reaching influencers and have developed a network of connections that easily transfers to the social marketplace. They'll still have a high degree of expertise that benefits organizations as they sort out how consumers are now connecting with brands on social media and mobile devices."
At their height, Kandessa's Web+Digital publications informed and inspired one reader every five minutes.

"In our 'after-life,' we'll continue to advocate for the erection of great content sites and for the education and success of operators within the foodservice channel," said Zambrano. "I'm also available to catalyze such opportunities for cut-above companies."

Zambrano anticipates that changes within foodservice publishing in general will accelerate over the next three years. He said, "In my time, I'll see foodservice publishers collaborate more to improve content, to self-regulate and create more transparency in article sourcing and circulation, and to reduce their carbon footprint."

"I'm personally aware such thinking has already started; it's unavoidable, and I still hope to have a part in that process."

About Kandessa Web+Digital

Operating in the premium foodservice news space, the Kandessa Digital information services brand provided multifaceted business intelligence to foodservice management sourced from the national scene. Through its prized regional Eatery Pulse Magazine and its mobile-digital counterparts on Restaurant News App, Boston and D.C. restaurateurs accessed local market best practices and hyper-local emerging trends.

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