What happened to the New York Times’ cooking community Facebook group?

“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.