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Breaking News About Food Safety News with Bill Marler, the Sponsor, and Peter Gustafson, the Fractional Executive Director | Episode 143
In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, our hosts Matt and Francine are joined by two special guests: Bill Marler, who you already know as the nation’s leading foodborne illness attorney, and his wonderful son-in-law, Peter Gustafson.
But this isn’t a family reunion; they are here to share some very exciting news about Food Safety News (FSN), the online newspaper that has been keeping everyone who cares about the safety of our food supply informed about critical food safety concerns for the past 16 years.
For all those years, Bill alone funded the publication, but that is not sustainable. Thankfully, Peter recently joined the team as a Fractional Executive Director of FSN, and they’re figuring out how to change that.
Tune in to discover the future of FSN and the changes that will allow it to not only outlast Bill, but to take the food safety journalism we know and love to the next level.
In this episode:
💩 [00:51] One thing you should know before ordering a steak
💩 [05:58] The history and evolution of FSN
💩 [11:47] The importance of making FSN self-sustaining
💩 [17:30] The big role of FSN in a food safety advocate’s career
💩 [19:48] The first solution: Google Ads and nonprofit status
💩 [22:50] The age of AI and the need for a new solution
💩 [26:27] What the new FSN+ membership will look like
💩 [29:47] How they’re honoring the needs of the FSN readers
💩 [31:43] Becoming sustainable to go above and beyond
💩 [38:54] The website redesign and what remains the same
Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
Be one of the first to become an FSN+ member and lock in the founding member pricing at foodsafetynews.com/membership.
Read some deep Bill Marler angst in the Marler Blog.
Read Francine’s opinion pieces in Food Safety News through the years.
Check out the Food Safety News Merch Store.
Catch up with past Bill Marler Don’t Eat Poop! episodes:
Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“ There’s a lot of things that I’d like to see done that I hope the new format, the new process, the new iteration of Food Safety News. It’s not a desire to cut back. It’s a desire to build. It’s a desire to make something sustainable, better, and more useful for the food safety public.” – Bill Marler
“I think this year we’re averaging just over 400,000 page views per month, whereas last year we averaged 1.6 million pages per month […] So as you can imagine, that [FSN’s ad] revenue came down quite a bit.” – Peter Gustafson
We hope you enjoy this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!
Connect with Francine, Matt, and the “Don’t Eat Poop!” show on LinkedIn!
Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!
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