Online is the future of your food section—you know that. And that means many things about your section will change.

It's not just that you'll have different kinds of features, like blogs or video clips. It means your relationship with your readers will change. The core of your readership will be the highly involved and interested users who come back day after day—interact with you and your writers—and buy your advertisers' products at a much higher rate than the average.

How do you attract and keep these high-value readers?

There are three fundamental things the new online reader is looking for in a food section:

• Up-to-date content that speaks to their level of sophistication—so they feel that coming to your site is important to being in the know

• Engaging features that take them inside the food business—not just with words, but pictures and video and podcasts

• Interaction with your writers—that leads to fierce reader loyalty and a new world of user-generated content

How is your food section doing fulfilling these three needs? If it's like most, you're good at #1, experimenting with #2... and not getting very far with #3.

Experience in creating a truly interactive food content environment

My dual experience—in interactive marketing and in food writing for an online audience—offers you a unique blend of skills and insight to help you create a fully interactive and compelling online presence in all three of these areas.

I believe my online food writing and experience in creating captivating new media experiences, such as podcasts and video blogging, can be an asset to your food section.

But what sets me apart is that I also know today, the writer isn't done when the piece is turned in. Writers have to continue to interact with your readership after their work is published. They have to reward reader interest, build reader loyalty—and engage the audience in the process of creating tomorrow's content.

Three and a half years' experience as the primary strategic and visionary leader in the growth of LTHForum has given me an unparalleled understanding of how to foster reader involvement and spur the creation of user-generated content.

Many people write well about food. The difference is that I can provide you with a practical model for the new interactivity of online food sections with their readers—while writing well about food.

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Samples of Michael Gebert's food writing:

Reviews

Schwa: I Was There When

Matsumoto the Impossible

Fed a load of Del Toro

Commentary

A dish (maybe) from the old country: Roumanian Skirt Steak

An obscenity at the movie concession stand