Why the Wine Rags will Fail

Written by ryan opaz February 11, 2010

Decanter (magazine)Simple and straightforward, they are too busy trying to circle the horses and protect their asse(t)s and not wiling to accept the new reality of the WEB.

Recently, a friend heard through the grapevine that Decanter doesn’t generally cover topics concerning the wine blog world. Apparently, it is reticent to post stories about what is developing online because bloggers, and their events, are seen as being in direct competition. With Decanter? Innocent little bloggers like you and me!?

This is not something new. 2 years ago Wine Spectator called me for a quote on something to do with Spanish wine architecture. In the article they refused to mention what I did or Catavino.

Today I’m here to say that the only competition to Decanter(and other wine rags) are themselves. You see, I like Decanter, I appreciate that it exists, and I don’t want it to fold, but they are doing everyting they can to fail online.

At it’s most basic root the web is based on links and networks, and by isolating themselves they are only making it harder for people to find them or to find a way to relate to them. By closing off the conversation and refusing to discuss current hot topics that are on twitter and other blogs all they are communicating is their ignorance of what is actually going on.

Oh well, good for us I guess. And for the sake of Catavino staying relevant, here are a few good articles at Decanter I hope you go read. Make sure to come back here to discuss them though, since their comments are moderated and ours are not.

Atkin’s Observer column slashed

Spanish wine magazine Sibaritas folds, Guia Peñin to go online

Gary Vaynerchuk video interview: ‘US should stay away from Bordeaux 2009′

Remember:
open=future
closed=extinct

Ryan Opaz

  • http://twitter.com/thirstforwine @thirstforwine

    I worked on getting magazines online before I joined the wine trade, and unfortunately so may publishers do not understand the essence of their model. They've been trained to do a series of tasks that have been going for so long, nobody understands WHY they do it. Ultimately, they are selling ad space with words around it. However, we want to buy information or entertainment. If they switched to serving that need better, the money would follow them. Unfortunately, they still see the future as selling ad space online, and so we are a threat – we "steal their eyeballs".

  • http://www.spiltwine.com spiltwine

    Interesting indeed that neither Decanter nor the Dictator are blogger friendly….

    -Louis

  • http://www.wine-life.co.uk/blogs/wine-news/ Oliver Styles

    I used to work for decanter.com and it's got nothing to do with being blogger friendly or not. It's simply to do with news as a phenomenon. Decanter.com will report something that is newsworthy – ie a recent event that will grab an audience. It also reports on people that are 'newsworthy' – ie have a big standing in the industry. It will, for instance, report on Gary Vaynerchuck, but is unlikely to ring Catavino for a quote. That will only change if your profile increases.

    Now, I know this goes against the reciprocal nature of wine blogging and wine on the internet, but that's not decanter,com's remit. It's remit is news, not hot topics on the blogosphere.

    That doesn't necessarily mean it's correct procedure but it does maintain Decanter's sense of authority. Only time will tell if Decanter loses that or its readers, but considering their readership, they have quite a while to play with.

    Olly

  • http://www.aroundwine.co.uk Winerack5

    I agree wholeheartedly with thirstforwine that "we want to buy(read) information or entertainment", and I do not mean to discourage the bloggers out there, many of whom are good writers and widening any debate. But when reading a magazine such as Decanter you can hopefully be assured of high standards of journalism and a quality filter (even if a lack of accuracy and bias sometimes creeps in). There are so many bloggers and others out there, keen to share their self indulgent wanderings, that the reader can be swamped by the deluge of what is effectively a personal diary rather than good 'information or entertainment'. One could waste so much time on filtering, that the good stuff is missed. I appalud anyone aiming to mainatain a standard, though not anyone attempting to define that standard. If tweeters would filter their tweets to being informative, funny, helpful, proactive etc and stop with the 'I just has a great bacon sarnie' stuff, then maybe the bar would naturally raise and the print media would start to feel the heat.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/ryan7968 ryan opaz

    I couldn't agree more on the point about Catavino being too small. I think I would blush if we showed up, though they have called us for quotes, so that does say something.

    No what I think is the issue is their lack of coverage of "Blogging" as a serious news story in the wine world. WHy not look at blogging for what it is? Why not report on blogging and it's growing influence. THat is news, and that is relevant!

    We had a Decanter journalist at the EWBC last year, something that did make a lot of noise, but not one mention. Not that we're bitter, but rather perplexed why they wouldn't want to cover news that is effecting the industry!

    Thanks for the commment

  • http://jimsloire.blogspot.com Jim Budd

    Given the severe libel laws in the UK I can understand why Decanter moderates its comments. For my recently launched investdrinks blog I have chosen to moderate comments and have already had to decline to post comments or take out the potential offending/libellous parts. Jim's Loire, on the other hand has unmoderated comments, although obviously I would bin any defamatory/libelous comments.

  • http://www.wineontherocks.com Finkus Bripp

    Bloggers/blogging is still tied to classic media more than we would like – it wasn't till Gary Vaynerchuk was invited to the Conan O'Brien show that he was recognized as a "real" wine guy… Gary said it himself, it took 1,5 years of WLTV before anything really happened. Once he was "knighted" by Conan O'Brien (classic media), the rest followed automatically.

    We can talk till we're blue in the face that traditional mass media isn't on top of its game… but we have to change the game, the way the story's told and how it's made available. If we talk Decanter's talk but can't walk their walk, of course we'll lose out – they were there first and have the credibility! That's why people are willing to pay for Jancis' and Bob's content! Regardless if it's on paper or on a monitor.

    As Tony Montana once stated, may he rest in peace: In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.

    Thank you, Tony!

  • http://www.wine-life.co.uk/blogs/wine-news/ Oliver Styles

    Hi Jim – libel law has still to really get into the mire of internet comments. As I understand it, as long as you showed due dilligence in responding to/bringing down a defamatory comment as soon as was reasonable, then you're OK with unmoderated comments. Remember the Cheryl Cole wikipedia page…?

    PS – moderating comments is a really dangerous business: you either publish them fully, or not. Which is what I used to do at Decanter. Otherwise you risk misrepresentation – which can be just as damaging!

  • http://www.wine-life.co.uk/blogs/wine-news/ Oliver Styles

    Ryan,

    Apologies – I just read my comment and it sounded a bit mean towards you guys – something that was not my intention.

    I just think it's difficult to report on blogging as a news story, even as a phenomenon. It undoubtedly is becoming one – and fast (possibly at the detriment of print wine writing) – but how do you measure it? Bizarrely, it's such a potentially 'big' phenomenon that we're back to the problem that, just like print journalism, it's very difficult to measure exaclty how much impact the bloggers have. The web, with its links and hits and upstream reports etc was supposed to enable this, but luckily for us (if we want to sell advertising on our site) it's become more complex than just the phenomenon of hits.

    If anything, the rise of the blog is an opinion piece, not news, and there, indeed, every single wine magazine has been remiss in reporting it. I wonder why….

    All the best to you guys,

    Olly

  • http://passionatefoodie.blogspot.com/ RichardA

    I can understand partially why wine magazines don't reach out to bloggers…as they sometimes see bloggers as antagonistic toward them. Just look at the title of this article, where wine magazines are derogatorily referred to as "rags." That sets a negative tone for the rest of the article, no matter how valid the content. Bloggers were upset when they were referred to as "blobbers" by Parker so why is it ok to refer to magazines as rags?

    How many blogs write positive articles about wine magazines? I most often see blogs mentioning wine magazines in a negative light. So why should magazines reach out to bloggers who are not reaching out to them? Yes, there are some exceptions, and they deserve kudos, but it is not the norm. Before we expect magazines to reach out to us, we should be reaching out to them.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/ryan7968 ryan opaz

    I agree Richard, if it weren't for the fact that i learned the term from writers for the "rags". So maybe the writers are disenchanted?

    I love the magazines though I want them to realize that if they want to play online, not linking is a silly strategy!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/ryan7968 ryan opaz

    One thing I meant to say, is that in a "news article" there are rarely any links. If they did link more there would be more of a community being built which would lead to better engagement! It would draw people in more and set up less barriers to conversation, collaboration and reduce some of the anonymity!

  • Kathy

    Traditional media does one important thing that bloggers are still reluctant to come to grips with: calling someone and asking for the facts, a comment or to refute something.

    Why didn't you call the editor? I don't say with any spite, Ryan, I just wish bloggers would do it more often. It really ups the street cred.

    (Disclosure: I occasionally write for Decanter and other wine and non-wine online, broadcast, and print publications.)

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/ryan7968 ryan opaz

    Kathy we do call a lot. This post though was sparked by an insider at Decanter saying that there is an unwritten rule to not discuss blogs. It's a reaction to that.

    Catavino prides itself on researching every piece and when possible calling! In Iberia though it's sometimes very hard to get a response! :(

    In the end Decanter has called me for quotes, and I would if doing a piece on Decanters policies, attempt to call them. Here I more or less am looking at what I see to be a trend that was confirmed by said source.

    Apart from Decanter, Wine Spectator when calling me for some questions once, told me implicitly that they couldn't mention Catavino because it was competition! UGH!

  • http://winefoodotherpleasures.blogspot.com/ Lucy Bridgers

    Hi Ryan,

    This is a very interesting discussion and earlier today prompted me to write a piece for my blog about the wine media in general. (I spent several years as an editor at Mitchell Beazley publishers before moving into wine PR.)

    http://bit.ly/d4e0N1

    Best,

    Lucy