Phaedra Cook has been writing about Houston’s hospitality industry for more than a decade. Her publication, Houston Food Finder, is among the last remaining independent digital news outlets in town. On Wednesday, Cook made a seismic announcement: She wants to sell the business.

“After more than 16 years of covering and championing Houston’s food and beverage community-first as a freelance writer and later through her own media company, Houston Food Finder-Phaedra Cook is preparing for her next chapter while seeking a new owner to carry the business and its social media channels forward,” Cook’s announcement read. “However, she isn’t saying goodbye to Houston’s food scene.”

Cook hopes to have a new Houston Food Finder owner in place by the end of November. She told Chron on Thursday the timing felt right. She wants someone else to take the brand she’s built further than she’s able to.

“I think we have a great foundation: 42,000 followers across platforms and we got a good reputation,” Cook said. “We’re not influencers, we’re actual media. I think that’s worth something.”

History of Houston Food Finder

Cook started Houston Food Finder in 2016 after more than several years of freelancing. Her body of work includes the old My Table magazine and a stint as the restaurant critic and food editor of the Houston Press. She felt, however, that she could self-produce a good food news and features publication that was a cleaner reading experience for the public.

“I started getting comments from my readers: They would go to read my work, but they were confronted by so many pop-ups and intrusive ads. They’d say, ‘Phaedra, look, I love the work, but it’s not worth it to fight my way to read it,'” Cook said. “That’s when I conceived Houston Food Finder … I didn’t want anything to intrude on the reader’s experience.”

Houston Food Finder has attracted enough readership to satisfy multiple sponsors including restaurants like Rainbow Lodge. At its peak, Cook said, the website was getting around 20,000 views a month.

Much like the restaurant industry as of late, Cook’s outlet became beset by forces outside her control. Changing consumer habits, fueled by the rise of social media video and search algorithms, dented Houston Food Finder’s performance. The original 20,000 views a month had plummeted to 8,000.

“It was really clear to me that people are not reading articles like they used to,” Cook said. “We’re in this fast food knowledge consumption space where Instagram culture is scroll scroll scroll; people want their information quickly.”

Cook pivoted Houston Food Finder’s publishing model more toward social media. Instead of publishing on the website, she published news and features on Facebook and Instagram. While the engagement on posts increased, Cook still maintained some articles and reads for the website.

The other trouble she ran into was advertising. Restaurants, beleaguered as they are currently, typically pull back on talking about themselves first before cutting anything else-a short-sighted mistake, Cook believes.

“I never understood the logic of this. I literally went back to prior advertisers and the response was, ‘Ask me again at the beginning of next year. We’re going through a hard time right now,'” Cook said.

“You’re going to keep going through a rough time if you don’t start promoting the restaurant.”

What’s next

Until she finds a new owner, Cook said she’ll continue operating the website. Casual readers will likely not know what will happen until the website either shifts hands or shuts down. The hope is that a larger company buys up Houston Food Finder and grows it or replicates the model to other food-centric cities.

Her next step is a brand new company: Perfect City Days. It’s all about finding ways to have a “wonderful day” across the U.S. She’s already booked trips to Los Angeles, New York and San Diego. She also hosting dinners and competitions, including an Oct. 24 event at the Michelin-starred Musaafer in the Galleria area.

“Right now, the plan is to close if we cannot find a serious buyer by Nov. 30,” Cook said. “This business represents a decade of my life and a significant amount of capital, so I’m not giving it away for a song.”

“However,” she continued, “if I were suddenly approached by business owners who are seriously committed to supporting Houston Food Finder long-term, I am open to those conversations.”

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This article originally published at Houston news outlet ready for next chapter after over 16 years.