Boston Globe
Steve Dunn tests a slice of Neapolitan pizza during Lan Lam’s recipe test. Steve Cleese
When private equity firm Marquee Brands bought America’s Test Kitchen in 2023, the Boston food media company’s new leaders assured employees they weren’t here to make big changes.
At the time, executives spoke at a town hall meeting, as former employees have done ever since It was reported to the Globe. Two of them said that the statements included a pledge not to make changes to employees. But after about a month, ATK laid off 23 workers — 10% of its workforce — and closed ATK Kids, which focused on children’s recipes and books.
In the three years that followed, the company had two additional rounds of layoffs, including closing Cook Qatari magazine and Laying off an additional 24 employeesin May.
Changes in ATK – which also includes fetch Influencers, The departure of some longtime employees – and doing more with less – has some concerned that the company’s leadership is hollowing out a popular brand known for rigorous recipe testing that caters to home cooks.
“They’re actually throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks,” said one former employee, whose sentiment was shared by three other former employees.
In all, nine former employees spoke to The Globe on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. He signed several non-disparagement agreements as part of his severance packages. They said the company had deviated from its core mission and overburdened its employees with tasks by eliminating key positions.
Company leaders stressed that the layoffs and changes are not cuts. CEO Dan Surratt said he hoped former employees would not mistake “the experience for confusion.” He said the changes are part of a reallocation of resources to position the company for success in a landscape dramatically reshaped by social media and artificial intelligence.
Surratt said the total number of employees will remain around 220 after filling current vacancies for engineers and technical staff. The number of employees remains within 2% of the company’s workforce in March 2023, which represents hiring in other areas.
“What we’re really trying to do is right-size the organization, not just from a staffing perspective, but from a content output perspective,” Surratt said. “I personally wouldn’t have taken this job if my job as a subscriber for 20 years had been to strip this thing down.”
Surratt noted that he and other leaders assured employees in 2023 that they had arrived to grow the company. He added that previous leaders ran sales for ATK Kids for about a year before Marquee bought the organization.
From “Cook’s Illustrated” to “The Age of Sourdough”
ATK was founded in 1992, but its roots go back even further. Christopher Kimball, one of the company’s founders, launched what was called Cook Magazine in 1980. After the magazine was sold and eventually closed, Kimball bought back the rights and launched Cook Illustrated Magazine in 1993. Seven years later, the groundbreaking television show “America’s Test Kitchen” aired on the PBS network. Kimball left in 2016.
America’s Test Kitchen has long been distinguished by its promise that its staff will do the hard work of testing recipes so that home cooks can follow best-in-class methods. Its level of accuracy is very much in line with the most dedicated kitchen enthusiasts.
For decades, ATK operated out of a charming, narrow 2,500-square-foot brown space in Brooklyn. In 2019, the brand Move to a 52,000-square-foot office in the Seaport, which includes 17,000 square feet of test kitchens.
While Covid-19 The pandemic has been tough for many media companies, and ATK has thrived during what some employees have called the “sourdough era.”
Suddenly, complicated The cooking style for which the company is even famous Curious cooks, who found themselves with extra time on their hands. attacks It has benefited from growth through a hiring spree, increasing its headcount by 25 percent from 2021 to 2022, according to an email Surratt sent to employees in March. 2023 acquired by the Globe. (Workers too formed Union in 2022 to bargain for better wages.)
However, ATK’s purchase in 2023 by Marquee Brands, a subsidiary of New York-based private equity firm Neuberger Berman, marks an inflection point, former employees said.
The company cut staff and ATK Kids one month after the new leaders took office, Surratt said, as the division was losing more than $1 million a year. Two years later, ATK decided to close Cook’s Country magazine because the print product was not profitable.
While the company still publishes Cook’s Illustrated and print books, the changes are intended to bring the organization more in line with a strategy focused on digital subscriptions and implementation. Surat said. He noted that Cook’s Illustrated had more than 500,000 subscribers, however He declined to reveal ATK’s total subscription numbers Or a specific goal, adding that the company has recently “stabilized” and is “really starting to grow.”
However, former employees said they had less time with the new leaders, which left them more ignorant of the brand’s priorities, which they felt were constantly changing.
“Rotten zucchini” as a metaphor
Unlike previous rounds, the latest layoffs were company-wide and included video editors, designers and product managers. Some employees have been there for more than a decade.
Former employees described how they loved working at ATK. Although their jobs were never easy, and the company was far from perfect, it was a collaborative and collegial workplace. That changed once Markey arrived, they said. Workloads increased when the company began making cuts, putting pressure on employees. This has affected the culture, which has become more fragmented.
A shared fridge for taking home leftover ingredients or dishes was a plus and “was really full,” one former employee said. By the time the employee left, one was “lucky if you get a bad zucchini.” The employee joked that it was a euphemism for the changing company.
The bigger picture is that without Marquee’s investment and the changes it implemented, ATK would be “on life support rather than the stability and growth we are seeing now,” Surratt said.
ATK is trying to survive and thrive at a time when food media faces enormous challenges. The rise of food influencers and creatives threatens legacy brands that have had significant influence on what people eat and where they eat. Likewise, the proliferation of AI-powered chatbots has made it easier to find recipes, threatening cookbooks and outlets including ATK, Bon Appétit, and NYT Cooking.
Kimball, the co-founder, declined to talk in depth about the changes at ATK because he left the company a decade ago. But speaking broadly about food media, he said the brands that succeed are those that focus on their unique voice and utility, rather than trying to chase clicks or aim to go viral.
“I think ATK has a very strong premise. Our recipes work. I still think that’s a strong message,” said Kimball, who now runs food media company Milk Street. “You have to stop trying to get to the market. You have to do what you do and do more of it.”
ATK is long lasting PBS showwhose production is entirely driven by ATK, remains the company’s No. 1 driver of subscriptions. But ATK has turned to social media and streaming services to try to reach younger audiences.
New efforts include creating a two-year “residency program” to attract culinary creatives “to develop exclusive recipes, produce multimedia content across ATK’s platforms, and appear on ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ shows,” according to a report. Last year’s announcement. ATK was also launched Three video podcasts on Netflix Earlier this year it added other shows to the streaming service.
Pushing the audience is part of a strategy to attract subscribers, which includes improving the ATK app. This puts it in direct competition with its biggest competitor, NYT Cooking, which it owns alongside the games Overcharging helped Digital subscriptions to the newspaper.
ATK is also looking to rein in costs. Surratt said the company has been profitable since about 2002, but is looking for ways to be more efficient, including testing recipes; She spends an average of $11,000 to develop the recipe.
Some former employees said that while they understand the need to adapt, they worry that the changes bring them closer to competitors rather than doubling down on the high-quality recipes that set the brand apart.
ATK “uses celebrities to promote the brand itself,” one employee said, which leads to the question of “whether this will attract an audience interested in recipes.”
Surratt stressed that there are no plans to sell the company, noting that other brands Marquee, like Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse, was bought and not sold.
In fact, Surratt said ATK is the cornerstone of a new food-focused media conglomerate that Marquee is trying to build. Owner of ATK as well Bought New York-based Food52, which has 15 employees, emerged from bankruptcy late last year and hopes to continue expanding.
“I think other subscription services in the food space are interesting. I think restaurant reviews are interesting. Food delivery services are interesting,” he said. “You want to fill a portfolio that touches consumers in all kinds of ways they interact with food, and that’s what we’re focusing on more.”