With the closure of Food and Taste and the loss of all the food content from other Bauer publications we’re only left with a handful of culinary titles. Of course the first that come to mind are Cuisine and dish, huge champions of everything that is New Zealand food. We spoke to Sarah about how she is feeling in this brave new world.
Sarah Tuck, Editor of Dish
Our younger generation who may not have learnt to cook at their mothers’ sides, are flocking to social media and websites in search of instruction – and we have the opportunity to engage with a whole new market of readers. In these weird and uncertain times, cooking has never been more relevant, both as a means of feeding ourselves, but as a way to connect, to take time out and escape the constant intrusion of news broadcasting. In this way, hopefully there will be a trickle-down effect to our food media, producers and suppliers, as consumers become more engaged in the whole idea of food. Meanwhile for the hospitality industry the picture is exponentially more difficult. With a looming economic crisis, they will have to fight even harder to survive, as dining out becomes more of a rarity – or event – for many. It will be up to us to keep supporting them as best we can, as dish did recently with our online list linking to cafes and restaurants around the country, open for contactless business.
As a truly Kiwi title, dish aims to keep the flag flying high for our readers, advertisers and associated industries. Our job, as I see it, is to continue to deliver inspiration, instruction and local industry news in ever more inventive ways – and as we deliver on those goals, we hope to see the reflection in retail sales, subs and advertising. We New Zealanders are a stoic bunch, and yet also inventive, creative and forward-thinking. I have faith that new ventures and ideas will come out of this situation, and that the new normal may have some pleasant surprises…in the long run. For now, we’re hanging tight to the idea of how we can contribute in the future and moving forward at pace from our dishbubbles.
