Just Cook magazine grew from zero to almost 500K monthly readers in under three years.
How did we do it? By treating content marketing like editorial publishing.
We made a concerted effort to apply an aspirational approach to editorial, creating content that would matter to our customers.
Specifically, we applied three editorial principles that separated our content from typical marketing:
1. Aspirational Editorial Standards, Not Paid Marketing Disguised as Organic We hired food writers, not digital marketing creators. We fact-checked recipes like news stories. We leveraged SEO without making it the end-all, be-all. We treated every piece as if top literary and culinary award panels would judge it.
2. Audience Respect Over Algorithm Optimization Instead of chasing search volume, we asked: “Would this benefit our customers?” and “Will this improve the food experience?” Real people sharing real value always beats keyword density.
3. Story Architecture That Serves Business Goals Editorial excellence without strategic alignment is just expensive journalism. Every compelling story we told connected to the company’s business objectives while serving the genuine interests of our readers.
When Content Earns Its Place
The results speak beyond vanity metrics:
- Just Cook grew from zero to 500K monthly readers
- Organic traffic scaled from 25K to 2M pageviews monthly
- Most importantly, our content told stories that elevated the brand. We leveraged storytelling to demonstrate mastery of the concepts people care about when it comes to food, cooking, and culinary culture.
So how do you implement this approach?
Building Your Editorial Operation
Transform your content approach by asking better questions:
- What would our content look like if it had to earn subscriptions?
- How would we approach this story if we were launching our own magazine?
- What editorial standards would make our audience proud to share our work?
The companies winning attention today aren’t creating more content—they’re creating content worth caring about.
Content that competitors study. Content that earns industry recognition. Content that transforms customers into advocates.
Your brand deserves that level of ambition.
Story Goods 