Major Media Food Writing Is Now Officially Dead. Here's the Guy Who Killed It.

Want to know what the labor market looks like for food writing? Have a good look at this job "opportunity" at Epicurious for an aspiring food writer:

I have an amazing job for a food writer who is at the beginning of her/his career. Here are the details:

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

. @epicurious is looking for a sharp, organized, cooking-obsessed Editorial Assistant to join our small corner of @CondeNast. The right candidate will thrive while performing both creative editorial tasks and detail-oriented production tasks.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

So far, so good. But here's where it begins to get ... depressing:

This is a full-time freelance position based in New York City. Candidates should ideally already live in the NYC area. Relocation funds are not available for this position.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

A rough outline of the job’s various duties:

Newsletter Production (Roughly 20% of the job)
Newsletters are a vital source of traffic for Epicurious, and the EA will be tasked with writing and building our daily send, as well as other one-off sends throughout the week.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

Recipe Production (Roughly 15% of the job)
The EA will build roughly 30 recipes (our most important editorial resource) every month.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

SEO Maintenance (Roughly 15% of the job)
Several articles and galleries will be updated every week by the EA, so we can stay competitive on search.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

Writing (Roughly 40% of the job)
A core part of the EA’s job: pitching and writing 2-3 articles and 2-3 galleries every week.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

Various Administrative Tasks (Roughly 10% of the job)
Such as calling in books/products, shopping for taste tests, helping with mailings, etc.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

...So, this is three jobs, then? Maybe four.

Interested candidates should send an email to me (david_tamarkin@condenast.com) that includes a resumé, a few paragraphs about yourself, and links to published work.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 11, 2019

"Links to published work" ... for someone "who is at the beginning of her/his career"?

At this point, this poor un-self-aware gentleman and his "amazing job" began to receive severe blowback.

Paid hourly at 40 hrs/week, no benefits.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 12, 2019

No, it's a full-time freelance gig.

— David Tamarkin (@DavidTamarkin) March 12, 2019

This tweet was particularly blunt:

This is a monstrously exploitative job posting. pic.twitter.com/BTeeyo4fgb

— Steve Mullis (@stevemullis) March 13, 2019

And then... things got serious:

We've seen the tweets and have shared the situation with our Worker Protection team. They are now looking into it. Thanks for helping to bring it to our attention!

— NYS Dept of Labor (@NYSLabor) March 13, 2019

There's an old saying: "Never go inside a sausage factory, you might see how the sausage is made." Well, major food media is sausage--and now we've had a good long look at exactly how it's made: on the backs of people working "amazing jobs" like this.

This ought to shatter any serious reader's interest in Epicurious as a site, and perhaps also shatter any reader's interest in any of Conde Nast's publications.


Footnotes:
A list of Conde Nast publications:

Allure
Architectural Digest
Ars Technica
Backchannel
Bon Appétit
Brides
Condé Nast Traveler
Epicurious
Glamour
Golf Digest
GQ
Pitchfork
Self
Teen Vogue
The New Yorker
Vanity Fair
Vogue
W
Wired


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