Eater Leviathan Emerges; Wondrous and Terrifying to Behold
Oh, hey, Eater National launched today.
And already controversy! In a bald-faced attempt to antagonize basically every amateur food blogger out there, the new national mega-site offered $25 "to any food blogger who will agree to shut his or her food blog down" and "cease all publication of foodie rambling, blabbering, and drooling over ridiculously mundane foodstuffs." (That second quote was removed from Eater's original post. It lives on in our hearts, memories, and Google caches.)
In response, Hot Food Porn asked "Are you serious? - EATER FAIL." Grub Street NY pointed out that "Eater Bites Hand That Feeds." Serious Eats ran a post about the gimmick, but shut commenting down (likely afraid of hate-spewing commenters), and then reopened comments. And popular blogger Frodnesor (of Food for Thought Miami) decided to take the bait, creating a faux food site lampooning Eater's smugness and demanding his $25.
For the curious, BlackBook has some background on all the players involved with Eater's acquisition of New York scenester blog Down By The Hipster: "Every snake-eats-tail media conspiracy you’ve ever heard is basically true," they say. It'll make your head spin.
In addition, Eater is planning to spread its tentacles and launch new sites in Chicago, Portland, OR, Miami, and others (names of the city editors are already on the masthead, though the sites aren't live), so get on your toes Village Voice Media, New York Media, and Time Out!
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