Trusted Media Brands' Taste of Home Closes 2019 Strong With Record-Setting December Performance

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Taste of Home, among the most popular U.S. food brands and the number one food magazine in the United States, finished 2019 strong with a record traffic performance on digital for the month of December. According to comScore, Tasteofhome.com had its best month ever, reaching 31.7 million unique visitors, a 26.6 percent increase year-over-year, continuing its streak of 28 consecutive months of year-over-year increases. The 12-month average traffic for 2019, at 21.1 million unique visitors, was also the highest recorded yearly average, with a 30% year-over-year increase.

Tasteofhome.com also recorded its highest page views ever with 267 million views in December and an average 6.5 minutes spent per visitor, leading major food sites in both traffic and engagement.

"The spikes in traffic right at the holidays tells us that people are finding our recipes just in time to get them on the table for their friends and family," said Beth Tomkiw, Chief Content Officer of Taste of Home. "We know there is no time for mistakes, so the fact that our recipes are put through the paces in our professional Test Kitchen gives home cooks confidence."

Taste of Home's strong digital performance in 2019 reflects the company's commitment to creating highly engaging and informative content for today's digitally driven consumers. Taste of Home's growth strategy includes a consistent emphasis on SEO optimization to surface the brand's award-winning content. The brand is also doubling down on video content embedded with its top-performing recipes to give home cooks a visual instructional guide.

Additionally, data analysis is helping to drive decision making around content. The audience and editorial teams work closely to analyze audience engagement to create and program content in all of Taste of Home's digital channels to provide targeted content that will resonate with the audience. For example, audience insights showed Taste of Home's social audience responded positively to recipes involving winter and snow. Consequently, Creamy Coconut Snowballs was one of the highest performing recipes for the period. 

"The recipes that rose to the top tell the story so well," Tomkiw said. "People want comforting, home-cooked classics at the holidays, foods that bring people together and make memories, and that's our sweet spot."

Categories that performed the best during the holidays included party appetizers, pies, potato side dishes, breakfast bakes, soup, and desserts, including popular Christmas cookies. Some of the recipes with high performance that attributed to Taste of Home's record growth included Buffalo Chicken Dip, The Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup, Pecan Meltaways, Simple Au Gratin Potatoes, and Basic Homemade Bread.

About Taste of Home
Taste of Home is America's most popular destination for food, cooking and entertaining. Each year they publish more than 5,000 of the best recipes from an extensive community of home cooks, each tested by the culinary team in the Taste of Home Test Kitchen to ensure reliability and availability of ingredients. From smart grocery shopping tips to timesaving weeknight meals to creative party planning, Taste of Home offers inspiring ways to bring people together over a love of delicious foods.

About Trusted Media Brands
Trusted Media Brands, comprises a network of engaged, active readers who genuinely connect with its blend of uplifting and expertly-curated family, food, health, home improvement, finance and humor content digitally, via magazines and books, social media, events and experiences. Founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace as Reader's Digest Association, one of the first user-generated content publishers, the company now contains a variety of well-known brands including Reader's Digest, Taste of Home, and Family Handyman.

Press Contacts
Paul Chronister
High10 Media for Trusted Media Brands
[email protected]
212-918-2025

SOURCE Trusted Media Brands, Inc.