“Hey, is the NYT Facebook cooking group in this building?” (Source: Angela Weiss / Getty Images)
Managing a Facebook group at scale is hard (we know 😉).
While we haven’t mastered it yet… there’s definitely one way NOT to do it.
Over at the New York Times…
… members of its Facebook group for cooking enthusiasts are roasting the New York Times over a half-baked plan to abandon the group.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the fiasco from reporter Erin Biba:
- NYT’s Cooking Community Facebook group has ~77k members
- The group was moderated by 4 NYT employees that had full-time jobs outside of moderation
- As it turns out, managing a Facebook group is a huge undertaking
Rather than take the heat, the NYT is getting out of the kitchen, disassociating itself from the group and precipitating a free-for-all to see which members will take over.
Per our Ethan Brooks, the full NYT Cooking subscription is a ~$43m business. But when it comes to managing brand communities, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
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