Dine and Destination Magazine Goes Digital- Just as Exciting, Rich in Content

Dine and Destination Magazine Goes Digital- Just as Exciting,Rich in Content / Dine and Destination雜誌數位化，內容一樣精彩豐富

Adam Waxman of Dine and Destination magazine

the Waxman Family of Dine and Destinations magazine

We chatted with Dine and Destination‘s Publisher, Adam Waxman about its current Winter 2020-2021 digital issue, entitled “Read/Watch/Listen.” This issue has informative and visually appealing articles that centre around the current pandemic including Paying it Forward, The Magic of Chihuly, Planning a Holiday in Quarantine, Could an RV Offer Your Ideal Pandemic Escape, Farmers Feed Cities, and Great Canadian Winter Adventures.

Adam shared his thoughts on putting together this issue. “It was obvious what issues are of concern to readers. They are the same issues of concern to myself and my family. I use myself as a barometer. And I thought what would I want to be reading right now if I was going to look at a magazine. Particularly when we are so inundated with content online already. I wanted to provide something that would be time-sensitive, immediately informative, and evocative. What can be challenging is gauging what people’s interests are. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for travel. I think people want to get out of “here” (wherever that is) as fast as possible. But we are all waiting for the word “go”. In the meantime, it’s tricky, as there is certain content I’d like to publish as destinations that I’ve had to delay in publishing because it’s just not appropriate yet. So we have to wait until we can all travel again.

In the Pay it Forward article, there is a photo of Adam‘s son Asher standing wistfully in a playground barricaded because of the pandemic. “I think all of us have had an opportunity to be self-reflective and for some people, maybe it’s made a positive difference. (While in this pandemic) I’ve been trying different things. I have a waffle iron and last night I put a potato in it. I have a smoker and I try different rubs. What I’ve really enjoyed is that the kitchen has become such a place of a bonding experience for me and my son. I’m cooking for him but he’s also coming up with ideas so we are cooking for each other as well as with each other. Cooking the most mundane dish is a lot of fun when you can do it with someone.”

Food was and is a big part of his family life. “My dad (Al Waxman) was an actor and he loved my Mom’s (Founder/Editor-in-Chief, Sara Waxman) cooking, as we all did because she cooks with love and she always tries to make everything fun. So much of our family life revolved around the dinner table. And we are all passionate about the arts. We have an artistic family, my brother in particular. Food is a big part of what we do. I was always my mom’s taster and when she’d say “You have to wait and let it cool down”, I was the kid who couldn’t wait and I’d burn my tongue on something. I was always fascinated by what my mom did in the kitchen. My son is like that with me. So we started a cooking show for him on Youtube, called “Cooking with Asher”. And we came up with different recipes that are imaginative, but accessible. He’s 6 so it’s something that a 6-year-old can make and something that an adult would be interested in making too.”

Cooking with Asher on Youtube:

Adam explains the collaboration with his mom and colleague Sara Waxman for each issue. “We both talk about what interests us personally. The good thing is we have two different sets of interests and perspectives. Because we love and trust each other, everything is given equal merit. We discuss each subject. Rarely do we say no. We just find a way to say yes. If she comes up with an idea or if I do, we don’t say no to it. We just figure out if it’s right for this issue or the next issue. Or how can we fit it in with the theme or build a theme around it to make it relevant. Nothing is chiseled in stone because we can always call each other the next day and say I changed my mind.”

Dine and Destination is known for its visually stunning printed magazine format. This issue is strictly digital. And Waxman is very comfortable with that.
As he explains “For the foreseeable future, there’s no substitute for the tactile experience of curling up on the couch reading a story. Instead of that, we are trying to transfer the essence of the magazine into a digital format. And we can do that, in the digital format, having the videos, trying to maintain the same standard of quality in the aesthetics and the content. And I’m enjoying it. We had talked about transitioning to a digital platform years ago but I don’t think we had the capacity to do so years ago. Now there are all these different platforms and Apps that make things possible so it was a seamless transition. It also rejuvenates us and puts us on a more sustainable path. Because I don’t know how readily people will want to go back to reading print.”

Future travels for Adam include his son Asher. “I had arranged in incredible detail, the ultimate family trip to Japan. My son and I were going to leave on March 11, 2020, which was the day the pandemic was declared. So I promised him that we will go someday. There are so many things to do in Japan. It’s a very interest-oriented country. For my son, it would be a Ninja-themed activity. Sara (on the other hand) would ( just) like to be able to go out to a restaurant and sit out on a patio.”<

The Spring 2021 issue is also on the horizon. “The next issue will be coming out sometime this Spring. There’s no rush. We want to make sure that it’s something enriching, that will engage and captivate a reader, in a way that our magazine always has. The important thing is to be relevant in the aesthetic of what we are doing, relevant to the theme, to have time-sensitive content, and answer the demands and the interests of our readership, recognizing where people want to go, where people want to do, and trying to create with impact compactly something that will be well-received. If it takes a little longer, so be it.”