Restaurant magazine - a letter from the publisher

Since 2001, Restaurant​ magazine has been interviewing the best chefs, restaurateurs and business leaders the sector has to offer, celebrating achievements and telling your stories to inspire, inform and offer advice to others.

When the industry has faced challenges, we have worked hard to be a trusted platform that brings our community together for discussion, analysis and to share vital information to help you navigate the choppy waters.

The pandemic we are facing is unprecedented and certainly the biggest challenge many of us will ever face, not just in business but in life. The grit, determination, innovation and selflessness we are seeing from the industry is phenomenal, but in no way surprising, as it’s these very traits that have always made this sector so brilliant.

Like many of you, we have taken this time to reflect, evaluate, challenge ourselves and prepare for the future. As a brand our goal has and always will be to deliver the best journalism and content as possible to inform and support you in driving growth and success for your business.

It’s no secret that more than ever before, people want to access news and information online, and engagement in printed magazines is in steady decline. We know this is particularly prevalent within the hospitality sector, which is far from a 9-5, Monday to Friday industry, and now more than ever you need to know what’s going on, as quickly as possible, wherever you are and in the most accessible formats.

Restaurant​ magazine has always had a loyal following and is requested by over 12,000 people each month. That said, over the past couple of years we have also seen our web traffic and engagement on BigHospitality consistently, and substantially grow; in the last three months alone more than 1.4 million of you have accessed our site.

The impact of Coronavirus has accelerated many of our longer-term plans, and therefore we have also decided that now is the right time to stop producing Restaurant​ as a printed magazine. We believe strongly that it’s time to modernise, adapt and invest where required to ensure that absolutely everything we do delivers what you need, when and where you need it the most and a monthly printed magazine is no longer the best way to do this.

This, however, is far from a goodbye from the Restaurant​ brand, the team or our style and approach. Instead, we will be bringing even more of the brilliant content for which the magazine is known onto BigHospitality, as well as investing in other developments across the site and when possible again, bringing back our world class events.

Stefan Chomka, Restaurant​ magazine and BigHospitality editor says: “While I shall certainly miss the joy of putting together a monthly magazine and the satisfaction of seeing each issue in print for the first time, I also love the immediacy of the online world and its ability to bring stories to a wider readership at a much quicker pace.

“The passion and voice that made Restaurant​ magazine stand out will live on in BigHospitality’s ​online features, in-depth profiles, long reads and analysis and I look forward to sharing with you soon all our new initiatives as we enter the next digital chapter of the brand.”

Over the coming months we will be implementing many changes across BigHospitality to enhance your experience on the platform and deliver what you need. So, this might be a goodbye from the printed magazine, but watch this space, as there’s going to be far more from us coming your way…