Scripps Networks' Integration of Recipezaar

Should monetization efforts trump the interests and aesthetic tastes of Recipezaar's members?

Ava Seave, Carla Graubard  | Summer 2011
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THE BRITE CONFERENCE CASE SERIES In July 2007, Scripps Networks acquired Recipezaar, a user-generated recipe and cooking Website with a captive community of 2.3 million visitors. By September, Deanna Brown, president of Scripps Networks Digital, grappled with how to best integrate the recent acquisition into Scripps Networks Digital and its affiliated Website, FoodNetwork.com. Should monetization efforts trump the interests and aesthetic tastes of Recipezaar's members? Would restructuring the Recipezaar team dampen the enthusiasm of its five crucial employees and adversely affect the community they had built? What effect would a rebranding have on the community at large?

Case ID: 090318
Supplemental Materials: Teaching Note

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