The magazine RICARDO at 20 years. More than 130 issues, 6000 recipes and always the same passionate duo whose love and success story is part of the brand image. If the creative Ricardo Larrivee is the headliner, many strings were pulled by Brigitte Coutu, editor and president of Ricardo Media. The duty took advantage of this anniversary to discuss with her success, instinct and the challenges of the written press.
Do you remember the exact moment when you decided to launch a magazine ?
Ricardo and I were fans of American magazines like Gourmet And the one of Martha Stewart. We dreamed of having a beautiful magazine for foodies, but also practical to reach families. We talked about it to the Gesca-La Presse team, with whom we worked, and they told us: “We’re going to put out a little stubby booklet to accompany people who watch the recipes on TV. We said to ourselves: “No no, we want a real magazine! So Ricardo, me and Marlène Beaulieu, at the time, we invented the magazine RICARDO on a corner of the table. We launched the TV show in September and the first magazine came out in November, a holiday issue.
Twenty years gives a good perspective. How do you explain the longevity of your magazine and its resonance in the kitchens of Quebec ?
Our goal has always been to support people in the kitchen. It may have been a little more technical at first and over time we realized that our mission was to educate, yes, but also to inspire and bring people together to cook and eat. We said to ourselves: the recipe is important, but getting together around the table is even more so. Sharing a meal builds self-esteem, children learn how to eat, how to discuss and talk about their day. Eating together is more important than the recipe as such, that’s what has evolved over time.
Through all these years, was there one element that fueled the path to success ?
We have always followed our instincts. I think we were the forerunners or among the first, 10 years ago, when we launched a local Eat number, a number that we called “Green”. I remember the cover where we see Ricardo lying in the grass! (laughs) And we’ve always listened to consumers. We have a customer service where employees answer questions and comments from customers every day. In addition to everything happening on social media. For example, every week, we were asked: do you have new recipes for the pressure cooker? There were already some on the site, but it was not enough. So we just launched a special issue on the pressure cooker to really meet consumer demand. In 20 years, I think, we have been very attentive to their needs.
The written press has been in upheaval for several years. What are the challenges this creates for a publication like RICARDO ?
So far, the magazine is doing well. We have a good readership; subscriptions and newsstand sales are going well. But of course we continue to think about the future because there are major challenges as a publisher. The decline in advertising revenues is mainly due to GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft – five large American companies that dominate the digital market and advertising revenues). In the past year, we also experienced a shortage of paper, which led to a 24% increase in printing costs in 2020-2021. There is also the disappearance of many sales spaces in newsstands and even in grocery stores. It pays more to sell gum, the margins are better, so they take up space for these products. These are challenges for us. But we remain confident because it is a product that is still profitable. We work very hard internally to always be efficient, to have good content without increasing costs too much.
You have long been described as the one who made Ricardo’s ideas turn into successes. After 20 years at the head of Ricardo Media, what still motivates you today? ?
What motivates me is the team we have chosen and which makes us better. If we’re here after 20 years, it’s because we have young people who push us, who tell us: “Hey, you have to be on TikTok! Ricardo, do you feel like doing this? It’s the team we’ve put together and everything we’ve developed. We are proud of what we have accomplished Ricardo and I, and we know that there is a succession, including our daughter [Béatrice]. I am no longer in the same place as at the beginning and fortunately! But I’m still here to set the overall vision and direction for the brand, and work with the team.
After more than a hundred publications, do you have a striking memory ? A recipe or a blanket that still makes you smile ?
Over the years, we realized that photos with people on the cover don’t age well! What makes us smile a lot is when we look at the old covers with Ricardo on them and the outfits he had on. We say to ourselves: my God! So life was complicated! Our shoots were heavy with makeup, hairstyle, stylist. Whereas now it really is real life. No more makeup, no more borrowed clothes. When there are people around the table, they are our real friends, they are our employees; we are very much in the authenticity.