Contrarianism is the Willy Week’s métier, but The Oregonian has jumped into the fray with their Non-foodies Food Guide.
When they canned Roger Porter this past summer we learned that the Oregonian’s A & E editor, DeAnn Welker, envisioned something different for the paper’s coverage of local restaurants. Porter explains in an August conversation with Eater PDX:
“We are radically changing the way we cover dining and restaurants.” That changing direction means, as Welker told me in person, that The Oregonian intends its restaurant coverage to be aimed at ordinary people. It will henceforth meet the needs of readers who go to the places where most of the people go […] we had had some disagreement over the paper’s forthcoming increased attention to restaurants in the suburbs and to chains.
Despite the nod to ordinary people, I suspect the motivation for the the shift in coverage is actually that small restaurants and food carts don’t have large advertising budgets, so they won’t be buying Oregonian ads anytime soon. Where most of the people go includes larger restaurant chains, which have advertising budgets. So basically the O is going the tea party route, i.e. faux populism.
And if my supposition is correct, that explains why the businesses represented in the Non-foodies Food Guide are, with the exception of Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen, large corporate (though putatively local) chains: Dutch Bros. Coffee, Old Spaghetti Factory, Shari’s, and Taco Time. (And evidence is gathering that my suspicion is correct, because as I type this I see a leader board ad for The Old Spaghetti Factory atop the OregonLive.com webpage, and a Shari’s 99 cent Breakfast special coupon on the PDX BEST DEALS sidebar.)
The Non-Foodie Food Guide articles (I’ve found three on OregonLive.com) penned by Lee Williams drip with sarcasm and condescension. I understand the cynical decision (i.e. $$$) to editorialize on behalf of advertisers, but to insult readers? Not so much. But I suppose since there’s not much of a story there (we all know about these chains – we see them every day alongside the road and in advertising, and virtually all of us have patronized them before), snark is their last refuge.
“…The Oregonian intends its restaurant coverage to be aimed at ordinary people. It will henceforth meet the needs of readers who go to the places where most of the people go….”
I look forward to reading The Oregonian’s hard-hitting and comprehensive reviews of McDonalds, Olive Garden and Outback Steakhouse.
I totally agree and, in fact, called the main article of this so called journalism tripe on the O’s website. I am one foodie who does cross over and enjoy the Dutch Brothers now and again, but to be insulted like by this the local newspaper slaps the entire food scene in Portland in the face in a very negative way. It is no wonder there is such a burgeoning secondary food writing scene in this town – the O’s coverage is a waste of print.
Didn’t they used to have something like this called FoodDay that came free with lots of coupons in it? I can’t imagine anyone saying “Should we go to Red Robin or Olive Garden? Let’s see what the Oregonian recommends.”
I’m an ordinary person! And I demand more coverage of mediocrity!
This is frakking ridiculous. Are they going to start reviewing Whoppers Vs. Quarter Pounders now? And then the Oregonian is going to start including free happy meal vouchers in its pages? The whole thing is just grossing me out.
You nailed it describing the O’s new direction as “the tea party route”. That seems to be where they’re going overall, not just in the food section. I’d expect to see reviews of Left Behind books any day now, if I was still a subscriber. I cancelled after they laid off a friend of a friend earlier this year, but that was just the last straw. It got to the point where I just couldn’t justify paying to read someone else’s picks from yesterday’s stale AP stories, with a few vestiges of local content tossed in.
Like much of the newspaper business, it seems as though the O’s run by a bunch of cranky oldsters who wish those newfangled Interwebs would go away. And failing that, they’re going to ignore “new media” as much as they can, and target their paper at their remaining audience, which increasingly is other cranky oldsters. It’s similar to what happened with network evening news over the last decade or so, which went from a respected general-interest news outlet to something that exists just to frighten the elderly while selling them laxatives.
It’s a sad spectacle. It really is. I don’t take any pleasure in watching the newspaper business waste away, but the buggy whip industry seemed pretty indispensible too at one time.
the whole article was just pissy. And DeeAnn actually wrote a comment in response to the 60+ comments stating that her “foodie/non-foodie” slant was made to poke fun; not to offend. She then went on to state that she herself was foodie. But the first sentence in the article is “I am not a foodie”, and then says “I eat to live, but don’t pray to food”. Ah, I don’t pray to food either, I just like good food. Doesn’t make me a snob.
@Devlyn, I think an advanced review for The Oregonian would be “We bought a Quarter Pounder, removed a bun. We bought a Whopper, removed the bun. What will happen if we now put them together? The ultimate double cheeseburger taboo?” Whoa Nelly, the Oregonian is having 14-year old young man fantasies, and we’re viewing the Cinemax After Hours highlight tape.
I was in Portland for 10 days recently and I always got smiles at Stumptown…and at Kenny and Zukes, and at Grilled Cheese Grill. Lee Williams seems to be a bitter person…and certainly generalizes all “foodies” as snobs. Strange.
Nice reporting here Dave. I agree with your conclusion.
Funny, I noticed that only the retired folks in my neighborhood get the daily paper. Maybe that has something to do with it. Expect a review of Old Country Buffett soon.
For the record, Dutch Bros. Is surprisingly good coffee.
~n