The Powers That Be: Daily Food52’s Recipe for Bankruptcy
Jan 31, 2026
Erika Ayers Badan, a media executive who led Barstool Sports and later Food52, reflects on steering a once-highflying food brand into bankruptcy. She walks through rapid COVID-era expansion, operational missteps, costly acquisitions, heavy tech and leadership churn. The conversation spotlights cost cuts, sale timing, and what sustainable media models look like now.
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COVID Masked Structural Weaknesses
- COVID supercharged Food52's commerce ambitions but masked structural weaknesses that returned after the boom ended.
- Rapid multi-line expansion during growth-at-all-costs left the company fragile when consumer behavior normalized.
Regime Changes Create Geological Layers
- Multiple leadership changes and divergent strategic pushes created organizational 'geology' layers that complicated later fixes.
- Fragmented teams, tech, and finance systems made coherent turnaround far harder.
Two-In-One Content+Commerce Customer
- Food52's core value was a rare content-commerce loop where affluent readers buy directly in the same experience they consume content.
- That integrated customer behavior makes the brand unusually attractive despite financial distress.
