Small Ripples Can Make Waves in Wine Media

Subtly, in the last week, there has been an evolution in wine media.

First, Gary Vaynerchuk, somebody who, without empirical quantification, I would consider to be the 2nd most recognizable figure in the world of wine behind Robert Parker (No, I haven’t forgotten about Robinson, Spurrier, Broadbent, et al) revealed via his personal blog that a one man media empire has limitations.

He noted in a 15 minute video soliloquy, replete with bags under his eyes denoting an unspoken dogged tiredness (a re-occurring condition for him over the last nine months), that he was limiting his activities over the balance of the year – Twitter and social media, speaking engagements and such.

It’s an interesting move, and very Urban Meyer-esque, albeit not surprising for anybody who has logged 80-hour weeks for a period of time and knows the diminishing returns.  While Vaynerchuk pins his public respite on, “Going Buddha” and a Monk-like exile (mixing metaphors) in order to read, learn and think about the current state of technology, his unspoken truth has to be that you can’t keep that work pace up without A) Burning out B) Getting divorced or C) All of the above.

It’s anticipated that he’ll continue with Wine Library TV, his raison d’etre, which has seen diminishing quantity over the last couple of months as his travel and other responsibilities have dictated divided attention.

I don’t think Vaynerchuk’s ambition will allow him a very long break, but it would be nice to see him focus his efforts on the wine world where he has done much good (in a short amount of time) to engender a new generation of wine drinkers, while not exactly kowtowing to the establishment.  Wine can use him.  Selfishly, I’d like for him to be an agent for change for the wine business (with both feet in, instead of one) as opposed to carrying a symbolic banner for social media and trying to buy the NY Jets.  His calling card and influence could be worldwide during a transformative period in wine in which Parker’s replacement is ready to be anointed, as a gigantic generation of wine drinkers come online.  Time will tell, however.

Second, I noted with interest that Deb Harkness, writer at Good Wine Under $20, won the best wine blog award in the Saveur magazine blog awards.

Good for Deb, I say.  She is a gem of a woman and one of the most genuine souls I know.  Her win is interesting to me because Joe Roberts from 1WineDude won the same award from FoodBuzz in early November.  And, Alder from Vinography has won the last two years at the American Wine Blog Awards, which closed nominations for the 2010 version last week.

Ironically enough, according to compete.com, none of the winners can hold a candle to Dr. Vino in terms of readership, and he didn’t win any of the awards.

What do three different winners in three different contests (with 10 different finalist nominations spanning 14 total nominations and one separate leader in total readership) mean?  There are a lot of good wine blogs out there.  More importantly, it means that wine blogs are splintering and growing with different audiences.  Instead of one mass of blogs being a bit on the clique-ish and insider-ish side, it means that wine blogging is segmenting into sub-niches.  One man’s Vinography is another man’s Wine Whore.  Much like high school, you’re starting to see the “cool kid” grouping of wine blogs, the “jocks,” the “smart kids,” the “hang out on the bridge, smoke cigarettes and wear black” wine blogs and those that transcend and straddle groupings, to use an analogy.

In this period of time, wine blog growth is unwieldy, because what was once a small community is, like Gary Vaynerchuk, becoming bigger than itself.  The next year or so will have bloggers in their gawky, awkward phase, but the future looks good for independent, online wine writing.

Next, that “thud” you hear is Wine & Spirits Daily going all subscription-based for its daily wine and spirits business missive.

In the wake of Rich Cartiere’s untimely passing in the summer of ’08, the wine newsletter business has seen Lewis Perdue launch “Wine Industry Insight” to fill the gap next the Wine Business Insider published by Wine Business Monthly magazine and now Wine & Spirits daily tries its hand at a paid scheme.

Ponderously, Wine & Spirits Daily is going all-in, all at once, stopping their daily email/web site article and going paid, for $290 a year (or $5 cheaper than Wine Business Insider).

Really, the only way you can go paid subscription for an online product would be to double-up the content, give some away for free and keep the good stuff behind the gate and then lead your readers into the premium content.

To go from free to pay in the span of 24 hours without a substantial change in the scope, quality or quantity of your product?  I dunno.  A double “I dunno” when according to compete.com Wine & Spirits Daily site traffic is a fraction of this site.

Time will tell if there is a paying audience for wine business writing that is long on witness reportage and short on insight and analysis.  Most people don’t give a damn that there was a car accident.  They want to know the whys and wherefores.

Finally, Jay McInerney and Lettie Teague launched their wine writing efforts for the Wall Street Journal.  I speculated on the reasoning behind their appointment a couple of weeks back.  The launch of the WSJ’s “On Wine” roughly coincides with the aggregation of Eric Asimov’s The Pour blog at the New York Times into a bigger blog called “Diner’s Journal,” that includes Mark Bittman and other contributors.  It’s a welcome change for me, given that I like the Times writers across the board and I harbor a longing for a life of leisure in which my morning coffee and New York Times segues into writing a blog post before I plan dinner.  Others haven’t cared for the silo-based Asimov blog being lumped in with others.

Speaking of not caring for it much, the real interesting aspect of the Saturday Wall Street Journal column that will alternate between Lettie Teague and McInerney, is the blog that accompanies it. McInerney has always been a bit of a cad, and critics historically haven’t been afraid of taking shots at him for being a nouveau rich, exhaust sniffing socialite.  Personally, I like his writing – he’s my favorite wine writer next to Matt Kramer.  I’m glad he has a venue for wine writing and I hope he engages in the comments section. 

Speaking of which, the comments to the first blog post widely lamented the loss of Dottie and John ...

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