Yahoo Launches Digital Food Magazine

Yahoo is getting into the food world with Yahoo Food, an image-heavy new digital magazine that launched last night alongside its new sister site, Yahoo Tech.

According to USA Today, Yahoo Food's new managing editor is Sarah McColl, previously of Yahoo Shine, and the site's first staff members include hires from Bon Appétit and Huffington Post Food. The site also appears to have partnered with several other sites, including Food 52, Martha Stewart, Bon Appétit, Grub Street, Saveur, Food & Wine, Chow Ciao, House Beautiful, Southern Living, Cooking 101, and Epicurious.

The first wave of content seems to favor light, quirky articles like, "3 Ways to Cook That Deer You Just Killed" and "10 Reasons We're Super Psyched It's January."

TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden suggests Yahoo Food is just the start for Yahoo's digital magazine efforts.

"Digital magazines are a core part of our long-term vision," said CEO Marissa Mayer in her keynote presentation at the International CES in Las Vegas last night. Mayer has been focusing on creating original content as part of her efforts to revitalize Yahoo. 

Yahoo Food actually looks a fair bit like Flickr, another Yahoo property. One opens the page to a wall of food pictures paired with attention-grabbing headlines. Clicking the picture expands the article, and one simply scrolls down to see more potential pictures to click on. USA Today suggests the site is designed with an eye toward mobile devices and native advertising, which includes sponsored content that would likely look very similar to the site's editorial content.

"Native ads have become a significant player in digital revenue planning as hugely disappointing banner ads have fallen out of favor," wrote USA Today's Rem Rieder.

Mike Kerns, Yahoo's senior vice president of homepages and verticals, describes Yahoo Food and Yahoo Tech as "the first step toward the next generation of media product."