Everybody loves food and dining out — why not give readers more? That was the premise when Newsday, the Long Island-based news organisation, started beefing up coverage of the region’s restaurant scene about five years ago.

The signs had been building for years: weekly restaurant stories showed strong digital engagement, often outperforming news coverage; the popular food and drink e-mail newsletter had the highest open/CTR rates; food critics were fielding requests to host special events.

Next, Newsday pivoted its food coverage from a long-running weekly print edition section to a bonafide newsroom beat with daily cross-platform coverage and multimedia content.

Branded FeedMe, the team has grown to produce a digital video series (FeedMeTV) and an award-winning quarterly glossy magazine as well as in-person events geared toward subscribers. In 2022, restaurant coverage was the most efficient driver of new digital subscriptions in the newsroom, generating 8% of conversions despite being only 2% of all the newsroom’s content.

FeedMe’s recipe for success can be replicated in many markets. The key ingredients are:

Focused coverage

Four veteran reporter-critics post daily short stories that are the bread and butter of the beat: new restaurant openings and popular restaurant closings. The team collaborates on seasonal dining guides and critics’ picks that are optimised for SEO (think best lobster rolls) and enhanced with lively video segments in which they appear on NewsdayTV, the company’s streaming video service.

The entire team goes deep on metrics data weekly to better understand what content the audience best responds to. In 2022, 84% of FeedMe coverage led to new digital subscribers.    

Premium content

Restaurant coverage was among the earliest content that Newsday put behind its subscription paywall. Growth was swift and steady, particularly through popular annual franchises such as Top 100 Restaurants, which launches on digital.

The quarterly FeedMe magazine, Newsday’s most popular opt-in product exclusively for home delivery subscribers, has also helped retention: 39% of readers surveyed said receiving it makes them “more likely” to keep their subscription.

Collaboration

Newsday Publisher Debby Krenek convened a cross-department committee with leaders from marketing, audience, advertising, and community relations supporting the editorial team with shared goals for new digital subscriber acquisition and home delivery retention. Collaboration is key to our growth through creative campaigns to reach new audiences and experiments such as a Newsday Live video going behind-the-scenes with the food critics.

Grow on social

Food and Instagram go hand-in-hand. Newsday’s restaurant reporters use their phones to shoot most of what’s posted on FeedMe’s branded Instagram account, which has grown Newsday’s exposure to younger, diverse audiences. This account saw a 10% growth in organic followers and a 307% growth in video views last year.

While FeedMe continues to evolve, Long Island’s love affair with restaurants remains strong — and so does Newsday’s commitment to ensuring our audience never goes hungry for dining out news on any platform.

Banner photo by Randee Daddona.

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