James Lawrence, Founder/Editor, Eating Well Inc.
Charlotte, VT-based James Lawrence, who founded Eating Well in 1990 with Canadian publisher Telemedia Communications, was not part of the food and health magazine when it folded due to weak ad sales in 1999. Having revived it as a quarterly in 2002 with 50,000 paid circulation, then taking it bimonthly early this year, Lawrence noted that its circulation will rise from 215,000 last spring to 300,000 with its February-March 2006 issue. Eating Well, initially sold in 10,000 natural food stores, has now expanded to Barnes & Noble, Borders and supermarket and drugstore chains. Though relaunched without advertising, Eating Well has carried ads since going bimonthly, with Lawrence citing General Mills, Kellogg's and Smucker's as advertisers. Q. With so many publishers spinning off into TV and cable programming, as well as merchandise from DVDs to books, do you have any interest in such spinoffs?A. Absolutely. We view Eating Well as a media company, not a magazine. We already have three cookbooks in print from W.W. Norton's Countryman Press, with more to come. Our diabetic cookbook sold 50,000 at $30 each, and Abbott Laboratories, for its diabetes-care products, is distributing 50,000 reprints to doctors. Our website (www.eatingwell.com) has made money almost from day one, and we're looking into e-newsletters. We have a diabetes cookbook out this fall with specific content on the website, and we'll have other condition-specific advice and recipes on weight loss and being heart-smart. We also have an exploratory partnership with the Food Network, providing nutritious recipes for the channel and website. Q. Is there any one recipe that's a standout in terms of reader requests?A. I'm told that our most popular current recipes are "Easy Pork Chop Sauté with Cranberries" and "Roasted Cod with Warm Tomato-Olive-Caper Tapenade." And our healthier-than-it-sounds "Inside-out Cheeseburger" is a year-round favorite. They're all on our website.
Q. Do you have any pointers for people who want to eat well during the holiday season, when diets seem to go out the window?A. We take a very realistic approach. We don't urge a Spartan lifestyle. We're about joyful living that balances good taste and health. There's nothing wrong with having a feast once in a while, as long as the next day we return to eat as we ought to. Q. What's your guilty pleasure when it comes to holiday-season foods and desserts?A. I wrote about it recently – an old family recipe of my mother's for turkey stuffing that's made with 13 eggs, a couple of pounds of chicken liver and a couple of pounds of butter. Peasant food from the mountains of Czechoslovakia! As we say in Vermont...wicked, decadent. Once a year is probably enough!
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