Springfield's Food Channel in talks with Paula Deen

The Food Channel, an online food-content provider that operates out of Springfield and Chicago, has been in talks with representatives of embattled former Food Network star Paula Deen about helping the company launch a new television network.

The Food Channel Editor Kay Logsdon said no formal offer has been made to Deen, but executives are working to prepare something as the company continues to field questions from Deen supporters.

“We often do get Food Network’s mail, email or phone calls, and we always try to direct people to the right place, so they can give either their compliments or complaints or try to help them find the recipe they were looking for or whatever. This is a little bit different,” Logsdon said.

Previously, she said The Food Channel would field one or two calls per week meant for Food Network, but since the Deen controversy broke, staff members have been handling 20 to 30 calls a day. In addition, website traffic has been up nearly 40 percent, and it has garnered nearly 10,000 new fans on Facebook, Logsdon said. The Food Channel currently has more than 31,000 likes on Facebook.

Deen has attracted attention for years as a celebrity chef featured in national publications for her down-home southern creations, but in recent weeks, the former Food Network personality has come under fire for comments she made in a deposition involving a Deen-family owned restaurant.

Accusations in the lawsuit, brought by a former employee, point to an environment rife with sexual innuendo and racial slurs. In the deposition, Deen admitted to using the N-word and making racially charged jokes in her past, which has led to at least a dozen major brands such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas terminating contracts with the star.

Following the late-June fallout, Deen’s supporters have been vocal, too.

Her latest book, “Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Recipes, All Lightened Up,” which was scheduled for an October release, had topped the best-selling list on Amazon.com before Ballantine Books scrapped plans to publish the book amid the recent controversy.

With all the anger and disappointment her fans have expressed to The Food Channel, Logsdon said Deen could be the ticket to ramping up the company’s strategic plan to establish its own TV network.

“Now would be the time to do it,” said Trent Silver, founder of Silver Visibility, a Tampa, Fla.-based public relations firm targeting celebrities.

Silver said aligning with Deen carries substantial risk, but a carefully orchestrated plan could pull it off.

“This is a serious case of reputation management,” said Silver, whose client list includes Caribbean NASCAR driver Victor Gonzalez Jr. and who might be best known for offers in March to buy designer purses from cash-strapped former childhood starlet Lindsay Lohan through his company Cash for Purses. “The thing with Paula Deen is not just that she said a racial slur, the problem is that there was an allegedly discriminatory environment.

“There was a time when you couldn’t recover from a celebrity sex scandal, now you can. It is a little bit harder when it is something involving children, race or animals. Those can affect a career a little more.”

He said it is important for Deen to be sincere with her supporters as she decides her next move.

“One central ingredient is sincerity. If she comes out, she doesn’t hide from it, she stops looking desperate with the YouTube videos – she’s a little bit all over the place right now – I don’t think it is too late to turn things around,” he said.

Public relations professionals representing Deen did not return Springfield Business Journal’s requests for comment through PaulaDeen.com.

Logsdon said the first point of contact with Deen’s representatives was an email she received June 23, two days after Deen missed a scheduled appearance on NBC’s “Today Show.” Deen rescheduled and appeared on set June 26 with host Matt Lauer for an interview in which she apologized, on the vere of tears, for the use of the N-word some 30 years ago. “I is what I is,” Deen told Lauer at one point. Deen also personally posted a two-minute video on YouTube to explain her position.

“I believe people had been emailing them saying, ‘Why don’t you put her on Food Channel?’ So, they reached out. We’ve just exchanged pleasantries and information at this point. No negotiations, nothing like that,” Logsdon said on July 1. “We have indicated an interest. I think we all recognize that this needs to settle down just a little bit. Paula Deen will have a lot of choices, I’m sure. It would be interesting to be one of those choices, but there are a lot of decisions that would have to be made on both sides before we go any further.”

Melinda Arnold, the public relations and marketing director for Dickerson Park Zoo, is teaching a course this year on crisis communications to senior PR majors and graduate students at Missouri State University. Arnold, a per-course instructor in the communications department, said Deen’s situation presents a prickly opportunity for The Food Channel to build its brand.

“Any company that is going to align itself around a celebrity has to do its own due diligence in knowing that person’s history, knowing what their marketability might be,” Arnold said. “If you are a company that is looking at a sports figure for endorsing your product or if you are The Food Channel and you are in conversations with Paula Deen to see if that’s a good fit, it is important to research and see what that person can bring to the table.”

Logsdon declined to estimate how long it could take before The Food Channel would move forward in broadcast TV.

“We’ve had talks with Dish Network. We’ve had talks with different carriers for cable channels,” Logsdon said. “We didn’t start out to move into TV, but we certainly know how to change with the times.”

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