Barbara Fairchild Named Editor of Online Food Magazine Real Eats

Fairchild, who has been a columnist at Real Eats since last February, was named the successor to founding editor Sean Elder on Wednesday. Real Eats has been published by Nomad, which makes digital-only publications designed for mobile devices like the iPad, since 2010.

"When Sean told me he was leaving, he asked if I'd be interested," said Fairchild by phone this morning. Fairchild will officially take over on January 1st, but says she already has ideas on how to expand the coverage. "Travel and restaurants, and more recipes," Fairchild said. "My new mantra is, I need content. Exclamation point!"

Although Nomad is based in New York, Fairchild noted that one of the nice things about editing a digital magazine is that you can work wherever you -- and your iPad -- happen to be. Which means Fairchild, who grew up in Studio City and has been based in Los Angeles for a long time -- she was at Bon Appétit for 32 years -- can hang the aforesaid hat here in L.A. (Are there hats? Remember to check.)

"It's based everywhere. I can be in L.A. I'm really liking not commuting -- and working in jeans and a T-shirt." Fairchild says she has "a million ideas floating around" in her head and is very much looking forward to working with writers again. She also knows the demands of weekly publication (Bon Appétit publishes monthly). "It's not a lot of stories, but I can't run a picture of my dog."

You can follow Fairchild on Twitter at @fairchildonfood.