Conde Nast Puts Epicurious.com Under Bon Appetit Control

Conde Nast is beginning to sell the audiences of BonAppetit.com and Epicurious.com together, the company said Monday afternoon, in a bid to better attract advertisers that want bigger audiences than the sites provide on their own. Bon Appetit VP-Publisher Pamela Drucker Mann will oversee both businesses. Carolyn Kremins, Epicurious' general manager, is leaving Conde Nast, the company said. "We were having separate conversations with advertisers," said Ms. Drucker Mann. "Now we can have one conversation." The sites will each continue to exist on their own, with separate branding and voice. But under the new arrangement, Adam Rapoport, editor in chief of Bon Appetit, will oversee editorial of both media properties, with Epicurious Editor-in-Chief Nilou Motamed reporting to him. Ms. Motamed took the editorial lead at Epicurious last November after leaving Travel + Leisure magazine. She has introduced a broader range of content to the site -- including travel features that might feel at home in a print magazine -- along with continued focus on the recipes for which Epicurious is known. Conde Nast rolled out Epicurious in the 1990's, part of an effort to build big portals around subjects like food and fashion. But food sites such as AllRecipes.com collect far larger audiences. Epicurious.com attracted 7.3 million unique U.S. visitors across desktop and mobile in June, a 66% increase over the prior year, according to comScore. The Epicurious Network, which includes ZipList.com, had 9.3 million unique visitors, a 61% increase. BonAppetit.com drew 2.8 unique visitors, good for a 65% boost, according to comScore. Ms. Kremins became general manager of Epicurious.com last June, after serving as VP-publisher of Conde Nast Traveler. She also worked at the defunct Cookie magazine as well as Bon Appetit.

Conde Nast Puts Epicurious.com Under Bon Appetit Control

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