The announcement officially ends O'Donnel's 12-year run at the Post, the last three as the Mighty Appetite blogger.

The veteran food writer, now based in Seattle, won't be without a home for long, however. On Wednesday, July 15, O'Donnel will launch her new column/blog, "Licking Your Chops," on the online start-up, True/Slant, an innovative media business in which “Entrepreneurial Journalists” can brand themselves and drum up advertisers to sponsor their work (for which the writers receive a cut of the revenue).

O'Donnel is interested in the branding side of True/Slant more than the self-marketing side. In fact, she doesn't plan to sell advertisers on her work. She instead will earn a stipend, which she labels a "big pay cut."

The branding side of the equation is important to O'Donnel as she expands her freelance empire. She's already hosting a new cooking chat at Culinate.com, and she's close to signing a deal to publish her debut cookbook, which she describes as a "meatless guide for meat lovers." It'll include 52 separate meat-free menus, one for each week, so that "Mr. and Mrs. Sausage [can] take a pass one day a week," she tells Y&H. It's based on O'Donnel's Meatless Monday series, which she launched last fall.

So what does this have to do with O'Donnel leaving the Post? Well, it seems that, as part of O'Donnel's arrangement with the paper, she couldn't promote her work in other media. True/Slant has no such qualms.

"I've found a new partner who is very happy to do that kind of stuff," O'Donnel says. "I really want to grow. I was looking for a partner to help me do that."

But there were other issues in writing A Mighty Appetite, O'Donnel notes. Its daily updates required a ton of time, despite the fact she was paid as a part-timer, and the column didn't get much promotion on the Post's home page, which meant it was often buried deep within the site.

O'Donnel will have to pay a price, at least at first, for more control over her content and its promotion. She'll sacrifice page views. She says that a Mighty Appetite drew between 100,000-140,000 page views per month. She knows that she won't match those numbers at True/Slant, at least initially. "It'll take time to rebuild," she acknowledges.

But the change of pace will also give O'Donnel more time — to freelance elsewhere and to work on her cookbook. Her True/Slant column, which will also focus on recipes and mindful eating, will be published only three times a week.

A Mighty Appetite was published five days a week. "It was like you couldn't have a weekend," O'Donnel says, noting all the time needed to source recipes and test them. "After more than three years of daily deadlines, I'm a little fried."

Photo by Karla McDuffie

Since unceremoniously losing her post.com gig last month, O'Donnel had been hosting a makeshift chat on facebook for the most die-hard of her fans. The Culinate site should make it easier again for O'Donnel to interface (didn't I say I was dated?) with home cooks who need a little help in the kitchen. For starters, they won't need a facebook account (although, really, with 200 million members, doesn't everyone have an account now?). Second, Culinate will alert you to O'Donnel's weekly chats—for the price of your personal e-mail.

O'Donnel e-mailed this morning that today's "chat will be an open forum — think of it like opening day of baseball season (or the farmer's market?) — to give us a chance to get comfy with the new software. We do plan to make chats topical in the coming weeks, tho, including one dedicated to meatless stuff."

Y&H has a meeting today, but will try to catch some of O'Donnel's debut on Culinate. If you take part, let us know what you think of the new site and new chat.

On Tuesday, Kim O'Donnel hosted her final What's Cooking chat for washingtonpost.com, drawing a number of cries and exclamations from home cooks who had come to rely on her culinary expertise for the past ten years. Today, O'Donnel told Y&H that her chat will be renamed and relaunched next month: Table Talk will debut at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 9, on Culinate.com.

Culinate is a privately owned site, based in Portland, Ore., with a wealth of food-related content, from basic recipes to interviews to buying guides and beyond. O'Donnel did a freelance piece for the site last summer and found herself attracted to its work. "I was just admiring from afar what they were doing," O'Donnel says. "It's kind of a perfect fit."

Until the new chat starts, O'Donnel will continue her Tuesday conversations on her Facebook page.

Meanwhile, after getting bumped around among washingtonpost.com big wigs, I finally landed in the e-mail box of a spokesperson, who sent me this canned response to a number of questions:

We are constantly reviewing our online content based on audience data, and while the What's Cooking chat was a lively freelance contribution, it didn't show the traction that put it at the top of our shows. We are expanding other staff-generated food content online soon. We continue to evaluate all aspects of our Web site to ensure we are serving our readers well and making smart decisions for our business.

I e-mailed back to clarify weather this statement meant that What's Cooking was killed because of budget cuts or because it was an under-performing player. The spokesperson called me and said she couldn't comment any further.

You can't confirm or deny that O'Donnel's chat was a victim of budget cuts?

No, she said.

Y&H has to say this: After a decade of doing this chat for the Post, and helping to build its online presence, O'Donnel deserves a much warmer public send-off than this bloodless statement.

Photo courtesy of washingtonpost.com