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SEATTLE, July 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com), the nation's leading media and marketing company serving 110 million unduplicated U.S. women and 70 percent of American millennial women, today announced that Allrecipes.com, the world's largest digital food brand with more than 85 million users globally and 1.5 billion visits annually, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Allrecipes is the leading digital resource for home cooks of all skill levels seeking trusted recipes, entertaining ideas, and meal solutions within a community where they connect and find inspiration through recipes, photos, reviews, personal collections, videos, and profiles. In tandem with its historic anniversary, the company is rolling out a research study investigating how digital technology has affected and changed the ways home cooks approach their home cooking journey.

Launched on July 28, 1997, by five University of Washington graduate students (originally as CookieRecipe.com, then followed by dozens of sister sites which ultimately merged into the current site), Allrecipes.com has seen rapid growth over two decades and emerged as a digital food leader, tech innovator, and social media pioneer. Allrecipes was the first digital food brand to introduce a variety of social functions in the early 2000's including shared recipes, reviews, ratings, profiles, photos, blogs, menus, recipe boxes and shopping lists. Allrecipes launched its first mobile site in 2000, followed by its first mobile app in 2008.  In 2013, Allrecipes Magazine was launched with an initial rate base of 500,000 subscribers; the magazine has grown to 1.3 million subscribers, and an audience of 8.2 million readers. And in 2016, Allrecipes extended its reach to include the Internet of Things (IoT) with an Allrecipes app for smart refrigerators and Allrecipes Alexa Skill for voice-guided devices.

Nearly 20 billion pages of recipes, reviews, videos and articles have been viewed on the site since its inception with a new recipe posted every two minutes. With users around the globe, cooks have visited Allrecipes from 246 unique countries and territories and saved nearly 370 million recipes to their digital recipe boxes. During its peak traffic time on Thanksgiving Eve, home cooks view 165 recipes per second and view 334 pages of recipe-related content on Allrecipes.com.

"Allrecipes is proud to have served our global community of home cooks for the past 20 years and we look forward to being a source of inspiration for discovering and sharing the joy of cooking in the years ahead," said Stan Pavlovsky, President of Meredith Digital. "As our brand continues to evolve, we will remain proactive in our commitment to empower our community, meeting our members wherever and whenever they seek recipe resources for inspiration, and instilling them with confidence to succeed with their cooking goals no matter the size or scope."

In celebration of Allrecipes' 20th anniversary, the brand is introducing four super-premium editorial destinations centered on providing cooks with the freshest new ideas and inspiration: Daily Dish, Sweet Life, Brunchworthy and EasyHealthy – all updated daily with Allrecipes' fastest-trending, seasonally-fresh articles, recipes and videos. In addition, Allrecipes, Amazon, and Char-Broil are giving 10 users the chance to win a complete grill and accessories package - including Chef John of Food Wishes' Epic Grilling Guide - just by using the Allrecipes Alexa Skill between July 27 and August 3. The city of Seattle has also joined in the celebration by proclaiming the 20^th anniversary date of Friday, July 28^th as the official "Allrecipes.com Day."

Knowing the power of U.S. home cooks (according to comScore they visited online food sites nine billion times in 2016, and viewed 34 billion pages of food content), Allrecipes conducted a 20^th anniversary survey of nearly 1,600 digital home cooks to find out how the availability of digital cooking resources has influenced their home cooking behavior. Here are a few key findings:

• Internet food and recipe sites have grown to become the top recipe source for 58 percent of home cooks. When asked to choose only one cooking resource to use for the rest of their lives, one in three respondents said they would choose food and cooking websites.
• As a result of broad access to digital recipe resources, home cooks say they are cooking more often (76 percent), are more adventurous (73 percent), and are more confident (63 percent). 
• Seventy-five percent of digital home cooks trade recipes - with millennial home cooks standing out as the most frequent recipe sharers; top formats include texting (55 percent) and social channels (40 percent).
• Digital cooking resources have streamlined the meal planning process. Today, 63 percent of home cooks report planning most meals of the same day as the meal, up 10 percent from 1999. Recipe searches on Allrecipes.com now peak from 4:00 to 5:00 pm on weeknights, a full hour later than 20 years ago. During the peak afternoon traffic period, more than 9,900 recipes are viewed each minute on Allrecipes.com.
• Accessing digital cooking resources through mobile devices has significantly shifted home cooks' daily cooking journeys. Using their smartphones, 33 percent of digital home cooks and 42 percent of millennial home cooks have viewed recipes in the past year while shopping for groceries. Use of digital coupons and redeeming grocery offers is also significant: 34 percent of Allrecipes' survey respondents have redeemed digital coupons and grocery offers. 50 percent of home cooks shop for groceries within 24 hours of their Allrecipes.com visit
• When asked about videos and food photo sharing, 40 percent of home cooks overall (55 percent of millennial home cooks) have watched cooking videos, and 37 percent (50 percent of millennials) have taken photos of recipes they prepared.

Voice-guided experiences are quickly emerging as the next major shift in cooking behaviors: one in 10 home cooks have already searched for recipes using their voice. Allrecipes recently introduced its Alexa Skill for more than 60,000 recipes and 6,000 cooking technique videos for devices such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show, which provide home cooks with hands-free, step-by-step guidance during the entire cooking process. These voice-activated features will make it easier for home cooks to discover and execute recipes, while keeping their hands free for meal preparation.

In addition to a variety of research available from the 20^th Survey, Allrecipes also pulled the most searched for, saved, and rated recipes by the Allrecipes community during the past 20 years, which are below:  

Additional lists of Allrecipes' most popular recipes by theme, including Most Brunchworthy, Most Romantic, Best Crowd Pleasers, Most Comforting, Picky Eater, Most Indulgent, OMG-Too Good To Be True, Worth The Effort, Love at First Sight, Most Photogenic, Unsung Heroes, and Best Hand-Me-Downs, can be found at Allrecipes 20th Anniversary feature http://dish.allrecipes.com/20-years/.

ABOUT MEREDITH CORPORATION

Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP; www.meredith.com) has been committed to service journalism for more than 110 years. Today, Meredith uses multiple distribution platforms – including broadcast television, print, digital, mobile and video – to provide consumers with content they desire and to deliver the messages of its advertising and marketing partners.

Meredith's National Media Group reaches more than 110 million unduplicated women every month, including nearly 75 percent of U.S. Millennial women. Meredith is the leader in creating and distributing content across platforms in key consumer interest areas such as food, home, parenting and health through well-known brands such as Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, Parents and SHAPE.  Meredith also features robust brand licensing activities, including more than 3,000 SKUs of branded products at 5,000 Walmart stores across the U.S. Meredith Xcelerated Marketing is an award-winning, strategic and creative agency that provides fully integrated marketing solutions for many of the world's top brands, including The Kraft Heinz Co., Benjamin Moore, Allergan, TGIFriday's and WebMD.

Meredith's Local Media Group includes 17 television stations reaching 11 percent of U.S. households. Meredith's portfolio is concentrated in large, fast-growing markets, with seven stations in the nation's Top 25 – including Atlanta, Phoenix, St. Louis and Portland – and 13 in Top 50 markets. Meredith's stations produce 700 hours of local news and entertainment content each week, and operate leading local digital destinations.

SOURCE Meredith Corporation; Allrecipes