Hanna Raskin, food editor and critic for The Post and Courier, will depart the Charleston daily after nearly eight years, she said Tuesday. Raskin will stay in food journalism though, as one of the newly announced winners of local news grants from newsletter startup Substack.
Once she begins in July, Raskin’s new publication, The Food Section, will “publish reports, reviews, and analyses on the food-and-beverage industry and dining culture across the Southeast,” the company announced.
Raskin’s cohort of 12 Substack Local journalists announced this week is the company’s first, and is designed to “help independent writers start sustainable local news enterprises.”
Substack has pitched its subscription platform as a way for independent journalists and niche publications to publish and make money without the overhead of a traditional media outlet. Its newsletters range from conservative news-focused pubs like The Dispatch, which has thousands of paid monthly subscribers, to niche offerings like restaurateur Brooks Reitz’s food-and-drink musings.
Former P&C food reporter Dave Infante publishes Fingers, a free Substack newsletter about drinking culture, and said his former editor is well-positioned to take on the new beat.
“Being an independent journalist is tough because you have to be an ideas machine and execute at a high level at all times. But that’s what Hanna has done her entire career,” Infante told the City Paper. “No one is guaranteed success in newsletters or anything, obviously, but if anyone can make this kind of subscription food newsletter viable on their own, it’ll be her.”
Since starting at The Post and Courier, Raskin has earned acclaim for her work, winning James Beard Award for local-impact journalism in 2017. She’s also been a controversial figure at times, resulting in her expulsion from multiple local restaurants. Fans and critics of Raskin’s work can agree on one thing: She is not afraid to speak her mind, and this will surely continue via her newsletter.
“My eight years at The Post and Courier have taught me the importance of ethical and rigorous food journalism to our community, so I’m sad to leave the paper and my talented colleagues,” Raskin wrote in another tweet. “But looking forward to bringing this kind of coverage to more readers in more places.”
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