<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Food criticism has always been, for the most part, under the grip of the old guard. Accessibility, being relatable, and, as far as diction is concerned, readability were never much part of the protocol, and so any conversation surrounding the simple act of dining was kept to the printed page. But that doesn\u2019t work anymore, certainly not in New York, where the Internet and multi-borough food culture have attracted a swarm of twenty-somethings and up.\r\n\r\nChris Stang and Andrew Steinthal, two music executives who together function as\u00A0Immaculate Infatuation, have become, in many circles, the de facto voice for this crowd, and their\u00A0Guide to Killing It This Summer\u00A0is the short answer as to why. Now in its second running, the publication, released as an Apple iBook, comes in at 78-pages, with 175-high resolution photos and interactive features to guide readers through days of dining and drinking in the remaining weeks of hot weather, and then beyond.\r\n\r\nThe guide, which sells for $2.99, joins the Immaculate Infatuation iPhone app and website in a line of digital products that form what is, at its core, a technology-driven brand. Though steeped in a classic trade, Stang and Steinthal are ultimately employing technology to extend the reach of high quality content, which their crowdsourcing-focused competition often fails to do. \u201CEverything we do is part of a plan to bring Immaculate Infatuation to people across a number of different platforms.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe website, the app, the guides \u2014 we plan on expanding upon all of them in the future,\u201D Steinthal said, adding, &amp;quot;We never once thought about print. We knew that the best way for us to reach people was to do so through their screens, and we also knew that if we could create great content and tap into social media, it would grow.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nAs with the website and app, the spark for the iBook was, at its base, technology \u2014 an opportunity to create a publication that leverages the capabilities of the iPad.\r\n\r\n\u201CWhen we did the first one last year, Apple had just released the iBooks author program, and we found that to be an interesting way to produce something more interactive, relatively easily,\u201D explains Steinthal. The opportunity provided by the iPad to publish whenever, wherever gave shape to an outlet otherwise overlooked by their typical online content. \u201CThe Summer Guide definitely gives us the opportunity to cover some different kinds of places which usually wouldn't qualify for full reviews for one reason or another,\u201D Steinthal says.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe content here, as opposed to the site, is season-specific, allowing Steinthal and Stang to preserve one outlet while extending their brand with another.\r\n\r\n\u201CFor this year, we went bigger and better,\u201D adjusting their approach to focus on the experience of existing restaurants and bars and how, in a single day, they connect with one another. Fortunately, the underpinnings of the product remain trenched in the editorial voice.\r\n\r\nThe guide can be read traditionally, page by page, through a series of on-topic, summer-specific categories: Best of the Patio Situations, Sidewalk Dining and Tables Outside, or Summer Drinking, which are further subdivided into specific locations and drinks. Here, the voice of their site carries through \u2014 \u201DGowanus Yacht Club is basically someone\u2019s shitty basement, but above ground and with a liquor license. And that is precisely why it\u2019s awesome,\u201D reads one suggestion; \u201CWilliamsburg is the new Soho, and it\u2019s places like the Ides that have all those super cool types riding the L train to Bedford with the rest of us,\u201D reads another.\r\n\r\nA print publication would be possible under different circumstances, Steinthal says, \u201Cbut in general, we invest our time, energy, and money into these relatively new platforms because we believe in them.&amp;quot; Their brand, with this approach in mind, really thrives in the merging of strong content and targeted technology \u2014 not one without the other, and not with shortcuts provided by the latter.\r\nCuration vs data\r\n\u201CWe believe strongly that technology, especially in the recommendations category, is fairly useless without content,\u201D said Steinthal. \u201CWe were confident that if we put our content into an app and matched it up with app technology like geolocation, that people would find it useful in their daily lives.\u201D\r\n\r\nTo this end, the app and site don\u2019t replicate one another \u2014 the latter has added layers of content, while the app focuses in many ways on the immediate needs fulfilled by location-based technology. And while the market for recommendation-driven iPhone and iPad apps is highly competitive if not supersaturated, many products lack the eye and expression to justify their purpose, driven most often by engines and algorithms. Instead, Steinthal and Stang hold on to their core strength \u2014 taste, voice, and perspective, a rarity in a socially driven market.\r\n\r\nRegardless, each camp \u2014 expert driven or crowdsourced \u2014 has its strengths, and competitors like Foursquare and Yelp have long been moving toward adding a certain level of viability to hundreds of thousands of users reviewing everything, everywhere. Yelp, for example, has its Elite Squad, a selection of users around the world who are considered, in essence, editorial role models and experts.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTo the 42 million reviews provided by Yelp users, the Elite Squad adds a global form of expertise \u2014 while not necessarily driven by character or the site\u2019s design, they ultimately provide a certain utility to an enormous global (and globally scalable) base.\r\n\r\nFrom a different angle, Foursquare has recently begun an aggressive push toward discovery and is finally finding some value in all of those seemingly meaningless check-ins you\u2019ve amassed over the years. Powerfully, its suggestions are based on data \u2014 your data, to be specific \u2014 and then backed by the opinions, amassed in the app, of its users.\r\n\r\nWhereas Immaculate Infatuation relies on some input to start the user off \u2014 Dinner with the Parents, Full On Pork Indulgence, and See and Be Seen, for example \u2014 Foursquare can begin pushing suggestions on anything just by knowing where you\u2019ve been, where your friends have been, and where you are at the moment. The more you put in, the more you get out, in short.\r\n\r\nIn essence, it\u2019s this mechanization of discovery that provides Stang and Steinthal a certain level of brand strength, as their reputation is largely and somewhat traditionally in their personality. Apps like\u00A0Tastemade\u00A0and\u00A0Chefs Feed\u00A0combine these two methodologies to varied success, providing crowdsourced recommendations from users and the opinions of celebrity chefs, who in their own way exert a similar influence through expertise.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhere Stang and Steinthal seems to have found their strength is in trust and accessibility, which ultimately places them head-to-head with publications more than products. But while they dabble in coast-to-coast coverage \u2014 Napa\u2019s French Laundry, for example, where \u201Cyou best believe that every course is going to be scrutinized like an episode of Lost,\u201D \u2014 scalability obviously has its limitations. The global frontier, then, may depend more on personality than technology, as\u00A0a recent partnership with MTV\u00A0for a Video Music Award giveaway might suggest.\r\n\r\nWith this in mind, the methodology that drove their launch is not all that different from printed media, providing up-to-date coverage in a scene as old as New York. The content is the priority, but whereas print competitors are struggling to reach a younger generation, Steinthal and Stang are fostering more level-headed connections by cross all platforms.\r\n\r\nWith this keen understanding of this audience \u2014 Steinthal and Stang are, in many ways, emblematic of its age and interest \u2014 they built digital outlets \u201Cbecause nobody else was doing it,\u201D insofar as the iPhone was concerned, and \u201Cbecause we knew our audience wanted it,\u201D Steinthal explained. \u201CWe like to think we have good instincts when it comes to the nuts and bolts of online strategy, but we also probably sacrifice some of the SEO details and the like in favor of a strong and creative social media presence.\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201CBe honest, be objective, and stick to your guns. Most importantly, know the audience that you\u2019re trying to talk to. If you\u2019re trying to reach the average person who has a recreational interest in theater, don\u2019t talk to them like they should know who all the inside players are,\u201D Steinthal explained.\r\n\r\n\u201CWe\u2019ve managed to really become a part of people\u2019s lives, and that\u2019s an incredibly special thing. We go to great lengths to protect and foster that relationship with our readers, and that in turn helps us spread and reach new readers,\u201D he added. \u201CThe Internet is a beautiful thing.\u201D\r\n\r\nImage credit: Thinkstock\r\n\r\nThis article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/09/15/immaculate-infatuation-and-the-value-of-content-based-recommendations/>