Ravenous

@weareravenous.com

4441 Followers 10 Following

🐦‍⬛ Food media with teeth ✊ Worker-owned Subscribe and donate now 👇 https://www.weareravenous.com/

A Ravenous montage with the headline "What's With The Fancy Popcorn Buckets?" with a byline reading "by Ashok Selvam." There are purple slashes of paint over three popcorn buckets featuring Spider-Man, Galactus, and an IMAX camera.
Please consider a paid subscription to Ravenous which will go directly to producing excellent food journalism, not enriching billionaires. Paid subscriptions start at just $7/month.
At Ravenous, we are creating something that corporate media has consistently refused to offer: a media company that puts the workers, and our readers, first. Unfortunately, we don’t have the deep pockets of a guy like Jay Penske (or James Murdoch), who’s spent the last few years buying up assets across digital media, and as such, we need your help to do this journalism across multiple time zones, not just in New York.
Meanwhile, thousands of journalists are out of a job and readers are desperate for quality, incisive journalism. We knew that this was coming, and that’s why we built Ravenous. It has been abundantly clear for years that corporate overlords like Penske, which has laid off countless journalists in recent years, care more about lining their pockets than creating a quality product. Enshittification isn’t just for bagels.
It is officially the end of an era. Today, we learned that Eater, along with Punch, Thrillist, SB Nation, The Dodo, The Verge, and PopSugar would be acquired by Penske Media Company. While this news is not surprising, it is yet another blow to the diversity of coverage that food media deserves. Consolidation has been the name of the game in digital media in recent years, and the only people who have benefited from this constant parade of acquisitions and layoffs are the executives.
"Subscribe for worker-owned food media. Only $7/month. weareravenous.com" on a green background, with a purple bird logo that says "Ravenous"
A slide says Bird Nickname of the Week: Chichichi. Under that is a hand drawn raven. A text box below reads: " “Chichichi, which is what we say in Mandarin when you're out for a big group meal or hosting a meal at home, and you want people to ‘eat eat eat,’ hurry up and tuck in before the food gets cold and before folks get too hungry.” The final text says submitted by Frankie.
A graphic with the headline: “This Is Day One of Ravenous” with a subhead that says, “We made it.” The background is a painting called Pronkstilleven by artist Adriaen van Utrecht, made in 1644. It shows a lavish banquet with lobster, fruit, ham, and more, with a monkey grabbing a berry.
A graphic that reads, "Raised $97,244 of $160,000." On the right is a progress circle indicating that 60% of the goal has been reached. Below it is text that reads, "Help us launch Ravenous, a new worker-owned food culture media company. Deadline: Midnight!" On the bottom is the Ravenous bird logo with the text that says, "1 day left".
Graphic shows a Ravenous logo with text that reads, “Meet a Founder | Courtney E. Smith." Below that is text that reads, “On how corporate food media can’t sustain itself: I can never do a good enough job to keep a media job for five years, because the media keeps falling apart." There’s a photo of Courtney E. Smith in the lower right-hand corner.
A graphic of Jaya Saxena with text that reads: "Meet a Founder | Jaya Saxena". Underneath is this text: On the Future of Food Media "In food media specifically, there are all these independent and also worker-owned sites and zines popping up. And I think that's so exciting. And I hope that becomes the new guard. Because that makes the industry better and more equitable as a whole."
Screenshot of an email from Jaya Saxena sent August 18, 2025, with the subject line “Chomp.com.” The email reads: "Good morning from a slightly drearier than usual New York. I'm emailing because we've all expressed interest in discussing the possibilities for ‘Defector for Food,’ or ‘Chomp,’ or whatever we might call a worker-owned food and culture site that may someday come out of our efforts." The Ravenous logo appears at the bottom.
A graphic showing a screenshot of a Slack conversation in the Fundraising channel. Amy McCarthy announced that "we're at 50%." The rest of the team celebrates with "ahs" and confetti emojis.
A graphic that reads: What you'll find on Ravenous: - Sharp reporting and long-form features on restaurants, dining, and wider food culture around the country. - Opinionated commentary and news analysis on everything from pop culture moments to fast food snafus. Coverage of books, television, and movies that touch the food world. - Deep dives into the labor it takes to keep the food industry going on all sides. - And more, like podcasts, videos, and events as we grow.
An animated graphic that’s titled, “Raised $71,855 of $160,000.” Next to it is a progress circle infographic indicating Ravenous has reached 44% of its goal. Underneath it reads, “Help us launch Ravenous, a new worker-owned food culture media company. Subscribe & Donate Now: weareravenous.com. At the bottom is the Ravenous bird logo with the text, “22 days left.”
A graphic that has the title of “Our Ethics | AI” and below reads: “We will never use generative AI to write our stories or create our visual or audio content. We also will never use our or our freelancers' work to train generative AI.”
A graphic that shows the This is TASTE podcast logo and then reads: Jaya Saxena on building Ravenous to be sustainable: "We’re not chasing infinite profits. We would love to make enough money for a full-time salary, and maybe some benefits, and maybe some other hires, and to pay our freelancers fairly.” On the bottom is the Ravenous logo.
A graphic that shows the This is Taste podcast logo and then reads, "Jaya Saxena on why we need more food journalism: We need to hold the powerful to account. And I think there are a lot of ways in which food media has historically kind of failed on that front." On the bottom is the Ravenous logo.
A graphic sharing that Ravenous raised $48,884 of $160,000 (30% to their fundraising goal). The text reads, “Help us launch Ravenous, a new worker-owned food culture media company. Subscribe & donate now: weareravenous.com.” At the bottom there’s the Ravenous raven logo stating there are “29 days left.”