How Delish’s Joanna Saltz built a sizzling brand and hot career in a fickle industry

When Delish launched in 2015, it was akin to a scrappy startup. Today, it’s a multimedia force, launching its first app (sponsored by DoorDash), and boasting a wildly loyal audience (34 million unique monthly visitors) and massive social media presence (3.2 million Instagram followers).

The timing of the new app — which debuts today, just as the holiday cooking season is ramping up — reflects the strategic thinking that’s defined Saltz’s run. Packed with more than 10,000 recipes and built to make cooking more intuitive and less intimidating, the app represents the culmination of what Saltz dubs a years-long dream.

What makes years in all, working on establishment brands like Seventeen and House Beautiful as well as Delish — is that she hasn’t just survived in media, she’s thrived by maintaining that startup mentality even within a large legacy publisher. As Delish marks its first decade, Saltz’s leadership offers a blueprint for sustainable career success in an industry better known for burning through talent as well as enthusiasm.

Here, highlights from a recent conversation with Saltz, edited for brevity and clarity.

Your leadership style must have evolved significantly from year one to year 10. How has it changed?

The amazing thing about Delish, and honestly about media, is that no year is like the year before. I often say to my team that if you’re doing the same thing a year later, you’re probably doing it wrong. The major change was just in sheer numbers — we started with me and five editors. Some of our first photo shoots were on the floor in front of a window. We didn’t even have a kitchen. We started shooting video in a supply closet.

But I’ve always maintained this very grassroots, hands-on approach. I think my team trusts me because I’ve been so deeply in the weeds helping build it. I very much still have a startup mentality about this brand. A lot of people don’t really understand that I didn’t step into a fully functioning machine —everything that is Delish now was built by the people here. We’re the first video-first brand at Hearst, the first developers of an app at Hearst. Everything we’re doing, we built from scratch, and that makes the job really exciting.

Delish is famous for its approachable voice — “no stress over perfection.” How do you cultivate that same ethos as a manager?

We have a very open exchange of information and opinion here. I’ve always had this approach that we are our audience. When I’m working with the team to figure out how we want to talk to the greater food universe, I’m always like, how would you want someone to tell you about this? What are the insecurities you have about bringing something to your aunt’s house for Thanksgiving? I think that makes people feel less like they’re hustling for an audience and more like they’re part of a revolution.

When you’re hiring, how do you assess whether somebody will thrive in that culture versus just having the right skills on paper?

I am team enthusiasm all the way. I really believe that enthusiasm goes much further than experience. Some of that comes from my own feelings of imposter syndrome, especially when you’re a leader leading people into things we’ve never done before. But I know that if I’m excited about what we’re making, if I believe that it can do well in the world and we have a really strong point of view, we can make it work. And even if we fail, we will have learned something. When I’m hiring, I’m really looking for people who are not afraid to take chances.

The media business is stressful work, particularly in the crowded food world. How do you keep your team from burning out, particularly during high-pressure periods like the holidays?

The thing about food media that a lot of people don’t think about is you’re not just putting a piece of content out into the world, you’re putting out something that someone then needs to take and apply into their own lives, possibly in front of a bunch of other people. So the stakes for food media are frankly a lot higher. Burnout is real, but we spend a lot of time over the course of the year preparing and planning for this time of year. Because of the cadence of food in our culture, there’s definitely an ebb and flow.

The media business has changed over the past decade, to say the least. How have you personally navigated that while keeping your team motivated and creative?

I try to be a really good listener. I know what I know, and I try to be really aware of what I don’t know. I try to be very receptive to new media and to what’s happening out in the world. I happen to have three children at various stages of social media, and not one of them does the same thing on social media. That’s applicable to my team here, in that they all bring really different points of view to the table.

One of the great joys of running a team that’s relatively small — only about 20 people — is that we can afford to be very nimble and try a lot of new things. We can grab a phone and go out and shoot something if we see it and think it’s cool or turn on a dime and make Taylor Swift’s Funfetti sourdough and turn that around in three days. That kind of hands-on approach keeps people excited and not afraid of new media.

Tell us about the new app. How did that come about?

The app has been a dream of mine for the better part of four years. I understand how critical having that direct connection with the consumer is. We got the go-ahead in March of 2025, so in basically six months, we were able to create what I think is a really incredibly fun utility for people who are looking to cook and try new things in the kitchen.

It was born out of our mission at the very beginning of Delish, which was: you don’t have to know how to cook, you just have to love to eat. Ten years ago, Delish started at a very chefy time. Food Network was dominating the airwaves, and it was very intimidating for people who maybe didn’t necessarily fancy themselves chefs but loved to be in the kitchen and cook. So we really pushed for that very friendly, helpful personality.

With this app, we really approached it from a perspective of what represents this brand most—whether that’s helpfulness, spotlighting our creative curiosity, or highlighting our original IP. We have a dinner finder quiz that is super fun to take and will help you find exactly what you’re looking for. It was really born out of this desire to create something that feels like you’re cooking with a friend and not as much like an app.

You’ve spent 22 years at Hearst, 10 of them at Delish. For those just coming up in the business, how do you model career longevity in an industry known for churn?

I feel a very soulful connection to this brand. I really try to cultivate a feeling of a mission and a revolution, more so than a job. From my personal perspective, that is harder to walk away from. Ten years feeling passionate and connected to something is not really that long in the grand scheme of things. When you really do feel connected to the content and the audience, you wouldn’t have it any other way.