Condé Nast today named Nilou Motamed as editor in chief of Epicurious to help broaden its content from food to lifestyle. Motamed most recently was the features director and senior correspondent at Time Inc.'s Travel + Leisure, where she oversaw food and restaurant coverage.
“We’ve been brilliant at the ‘epi’ part of what we do, and now we want to explore more of the ‘curious,’” svp and general manager Carolyn Kremins told Adweek. “Food is always going to be at the epicenter of Epicurious, but we want to bring even more depth and dimension to the table, so to speak.”
With Kremins and now Motamed both bringing a travel background (Kremins most recently helmed Condé Nast Traveler), readers can expect to see more travel coverage on the site, too. “We have always covered all kinds of international food offerings, so this is a great opportunity to expand into that travel space as well,” said Kremins. (There’s still no word on whether these new content areas will result in a staff expansion.)
There are also mobile and video plans in the works. Epicurious is creating a new mobile-optimized site and working with Condé Nast Entertainment on a video channel that's scheduled to launch in the Q1 2014. Motamed’s TV experience—she’s appeared on NBC’s Today Show and CNN as a lifestyle expert and co-hosted the Travel Channel series “Travel Spies”—should come in handy as video takes a bigger role.
Tanya Steel, the site’s current editor in chief, is staying with the brand as a special projects contributor, and will continue to run the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge that she launched last year in partnership with First Lady Michelle Obama and the Let’s Move campaign. Kremins said Steel will also be involved in several soon-to-be-announced licensing deals.