A different kind of food fight - Restaurant Business magazine

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April 15, 1994 by Lambeth Hochwald

Restaurant Business is spicing things up in the foodservice category. But will the gamble pay off?

What do you get when you cross a no-nonsense New Englander with a brazen Brooklynite? In the case of Restaurant Business (RB) and its top two editors, the answer is a hard-hitting editorial voice that has helped transform the Bill Communications title from just another how-to trade into a compelling read in a fiercely combative category.

RB editor Scott Allmendinger is the New Englander. Before joining the publication as food editor in 1987 (he assumed his current position in 1990), Allmendinger spent a decade learning the commercial foodservice industry from the inside out, starting as a busboy at a Maine lobster pot and eventually working his way up to an executive chef position at a Fortune 500 company. His alter ego at the magazine is deputy editor Ralph Raffio, the Brooklynite. While Allmendinger was climbing the restaurant ranks, Raffio was honing his skills as a reporter for a number of business publications--including RB, where he put in a two-year stint in the early eighties.

Combining what Allmendinger knows about the foodservice industry with what Raffio knows about getting a story, the two have moved RB to the front lines. As a result of a redesign introduced in January 1992, the magazine now delivers in-depth articles on industry issues such as smoking, sexual harassment, violence and food safety. Covers that used to rely on such scintillating blurbs as "Menu Ideas: Potatoes" now feature much more dramatic fare, like "Bloody Murder," a piece that ran last May detailing how a rash of fastfood restaurant killings has affected restaurateurs. Nor has the magazine pulled its punches in taking a critical look at some of the problems besetting chains such as Red Lobster and McDonald's.

It's an attention-grabbing approach that seems to be winning some praise for RB, which publishes 18 issues a year. But it's also still very much a work-in-progress. "They're Johnny-come-latelies to the news-and-issues arena," says Rick Van Warner, who serves as editor of the 90,000-circulation Nation's Restaurant News. "RB used to be a very soft magazine that would shy away from tough subjects. They now understand that's not what people want."

When Raffio rejoined RB in September 1991, it was clear that the book needed a new direction. Although the title had won its second consecutive Neal award that year for its food department pieces (it would win a third in 1992 for its news and features), the magazine was lacking the necessary edge to distinguish itself from competitors such as Nation's Restaurant News, a Lebhar-Friedman weekly tabloid; Restaurants & Institutions, a Cahners biweekly; and Restaurant Hospitality, a Penton monthly. Another challenge was finding a format that appealed to the magazine's diverse readership, a controlled-circulation audience of 130,000 that includes theme restaurants, mom-and-pop establishments and fast-food chains.

"We needed to take a magazine that was really level with |the competition~ and make it so distinctive and well executed that we could end up with a weapon to stay above the discounting fray," says Allmendinger, who last year won a Neal Certificate of Merit for his editorials, many of which reflect his insider's view of the industry. "If we can make the magazine more 'read me now' compared to the others, then the advertiser will be served."

So far, though, convincing advertisers--mainly food manufacturers--of that point has been a tough sell. RB's ad pages were down 11.7 percent last year, from 2,415 to 2,133, according to Patterson Advertising Reports. That put the title third behind Restaurants & Institutions, which was up 0.7 percent, to 3,355, and Nation's Restaurant News, which was up a hefty 19.8 percent, to 2,657. Through January of this year, Restaurant Business was down 14 pages from the previous year, from 176 to 162. (Only Nation's Restaurant News showed a gain, from 167 to 307 pages.)

RB's president and group publisher, Jeffrey P. Berlind, attributes the declines in part to firmer pricing. "I'd be surprised if we go down from here," he says. "We've bottomed out, but from here we'll build our share. I'm not happy about the loss of pages, but profitability is up in spite of that. People were over-advertising before. The number of pages that companies are running has dwindled."

Of course, the competitors see it another way. "Strategically, RB is doing something perilous," says Michael Bartlett, vice president and editor in chief of Restaurants & Institutions, a title that focuses on how-to and operations information for its readers. "When you've made noise editorially but you haven't gotten the payback advertising-wise, you wonder. What bothers some of us is that their approach positions the magazine as shock journalism--they're only three steps away from 'Geraldo.' They have the readers' attention, but then what? The editorial can make itself heard but still not help the magazine."