Scripps Networks has acquired Recipezaar.com, a user-generated recipe and community site featuring more than 230,000 recipes. The acquisition is part of Scripps Networks’ strategy to aggressively move its online business beyond extensions of its TV networks to become multi-branded, user-centric applications, creating communities of online consumers with shared passions.
Founded in 1999 by former Microsoft employees Gay Gilmore and Troy Hakala, Recipezaar recorded 2.3 million unique visitors in June. The site is built on an internally developed, proprietary software enabling user submission and community functionality, parsing and tagging. As a result, Recipezaar provides food enthusiasts an intuitive browsing tool, powerful search capabilities, and personalized features including “My Cookbook,†“My Grocery List,†and recipe ratings and suggestions.
Recipezaar will operate as a stand-alone brand within Scripps Networks’ online properties, functioning separate from, but as a complement to FoodNetwork.com, according to Deanna Brown, president of Scripps Networks Interactive Group. The combination of FoodNetwork.com and Recipezaar.com will increase unduplicated audience share to 19 percent, securing a dominant position in the food category over the long term, Brown added.
Scripps Networks develops some of the most relevant content available on television, the Internet and satellite radio, in books and magazines, and on today’s emerging media platforms. Its leading brands, HGTV and Food Network, are among the most popular networks on television, while DIY Network, FINE LIVING TV Network and Great American Country all rank among the fastest growing emerging networks on cable. Online, HGTV.com and DIYnetwork.com rank No. 1 and No. 2 respectively among content providers on the web in the Home & Garden category, while FoodNetwork.com is the top-rated content provider on the Web in the Food & Cooking category, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Originally posted on July 19, 2007 @ 8:30 am