Also I wanted to make a correction - Food and Wine has over 900K subscribers. I properly listed it on the chart but not in the content. It's now properly represented.
Finally, I've missed some great wine writers in the article and I'll add more in the notes as I remember them.
As a wine producer I am also concerned about the same topic and I feel that even if I am from the distant Somló mountain, I have come to similar conclusions in many respects.
I think your POV is spot on. As a longtime wine writer who only wrote about wine for 13 years, I was able to do so professionally without needing a second or part-time or even full-time job while writing as as hobbyist, as many others have done. It was possible to earn a living in this space until the pandemic when suddenly the entire model shifted along with the rise of influencers. There is little to no ad budget left now that much of that money has shifted to social / influencer campaigns. In response, I spent the last two years developing my own project which launched on Monday. I am expanding beyond wine to embrace all drinks as well as food, travel, and lifestyle to cast the widest net for audience and ad dollars as I’m working in a different niche - the sustainability space. I have entirely self-funded the project with the money earned as a professional wine writer but realize this project has to grow into a brand not just remain a magazine in order to survive. Oddly enough, the best performing article since launch: my definitive list of the best wines in Chile. http://azureroad.io/ Have a look! Thanks.
Lauren, so great to hear from you and I forgot to add you to the great write list. I love Azure Road and I already subscribed! LMK how I can best support you and your new endeavor.
With regard to solutions, advertising is a fair suggestion after reading from your article the challenges of wine media.
My concern is advertising is difficult to execute. Wine brands have a hard time hitting the message in advertising. And it goes against what many current engaged consumers, and surely what the future younger consumers, crave with wine: Authenticity.
Wine is often about discovery, learning, sharing and (more and more) experiencing. Further, 99% of wine brands cannot afford to scale advertising in the current state. Hence wine brands currently rely on dedicated wine publications and with investment in Public Relations firms to get exposed for the other media outlets you propose.
As I would expect, an amazing perspective from you my friend. I agree that traditional advertising has not been the most successful so activating it with non-wine publications is going to be a challenge of failing forward. Perhaps a group of wineries banding together to propose a new model? Or larger wineries collaborating on using funds normally targeted for the Spectator or Enthusiast to ensure they fund a new wine section?
I am a giant fan of earned media from PR firms but, without enough outlets, all of our wineries are fighting for tiny, finite space. Somehow we need to find a way to earn back regular wine sections. Maybe host their advertisers dinner with donated wine? Just trying to think out of the box.
The same metrics can be applied to Travel writing. There once were over 40 full time travel editors with dedicated travel sections in newspapers now there are less than 10. And content marketing/advertorial is the norm.
Hey Paul — Interesting piece! Could you please elaborate on how you'd define a Wine Aware reader? Or point us to a source who might have coined that concept? Please and thank you!
I agree. But I'm also curious about 'wine interested'. I think it's very hard to establish meaningful numbers here. Many people may be quite interested in wine when they have to be. "Which wine should we have when your boss comes to dinner?"
Some become briefly interested when on holiday
I agree with Paul that the number who think about it daily is tiny. Bear in mind that only 11% of French now drink wine regularly. And only 20% or so of Americans do so with *any* meaningful kind of frequency (with 2/3 never touching it)
The triangle of engagement came from a VinTank study that analyzed millions users from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Delectable and Vivino. The data science team determined that Wine Interested people had mentioned variety, region, or brand at some point while Wine Aware people had only discussed "wine" in conversations.
I'd need to dig deeper into that. Does it mean that a person saying 'We drank Barefoot Moscato' is more 'interested' than someone who casually referred to the Chateauneuf they drank as a 'good bottle of red'?
Yes, when measured over time and total volume of conversations. Also, they accounted long tail exceptions and for anomalous spikes in conversations (e.g. promotions to #hashtag the brand). They grouped them into cohorts for detailed psychographic reports. Do you remember the 5 Tribes Report from VinTank?
Sadly that was the publish date and no updates. It was a seminal report and analyzed more data than anyone at the time and more than is possible now since GDPR and CDC. We kept the data set running for years and it remained consistent. To do that kind of analysis the best source now would be licensing Foursquare data.
Great article and analysis. I've been saying for years that outside the 11% you identified as wine lovers, there really is no such thing as a wine consumer. There are people who love travel and drink wine when they go. There are people who drink wine while conducting business. Or people who love history and culture but among those 89%, there are no wine consumers. It's incidental and it's the media that reaches them that's important. Also, wineries need to learn where wine intersects with their customers' lives and consider how they can help them get the most out of those interests. When constructing emails that constantly push wine transactions, it's worth keeping in mind that there are 350 billion emails sent around the world everyday and it's estimated that up to 95% end up in junk folders or go unread. The focus should be on building customer relationships and that requires learning more about their non-wine lives.
There are almost certainly lots of keen Barefoot drinkers who *technically* can be called 'wine consumers. And some 'wine lovers' who - for health reasons, possibly - 'consume relatively little
I agree that the history and culture - whatever Jefford and Asimov may say, and however eloquently - may be of relevance to very few. Including some who buy and enjoy fine wine.
But yes, of course we have to find where any wine fits into the life of any target customer (to use another term), whatever their relationship to wine as a subject
Paul, thanks for reading. I did not say all Forbes writers or writing is junk. That would be like me saying that all blogs are junk. I did say that there is no editorial oversight and there are a lot of bloggers using the masthead to legitimize their content (even if it is biased, regurgitated press releases, or poor writing). On top of that Forbes pays based on performance, not on the value of the content, which encourages a certain type of content. Since most readers are not media literate they don't realize that Forbes Contributors are just bloggers on that platform.
I doubt the public is indifferent because of the quality of wine. I also don't wine writers we should yuck other people's yum. It only hurts the industry. Instead they should try to elevate those consumers to wines that have a sense of place and style and why they should take that journey making better wine a part of their lifestyle vs just an adult beverage.
The core reason people are indifferent is because the majority of people, even engaged wine drinkers, can only consume so much wine content or don't care enough to be subscribed to wine specific content. It's like asking people who like movies to read Total Film or SFX, or people that like music to want to subscribe Spin or Pitchfork. We need wine content intersecting where they read about other topics.
ICYMI - Joe Roberts wrote an amazing companion piece to this article - https://www.1winedude.com/we-told-you-so-wine-medias-day-of-reckoning-is-here-and-can-we-fix-it/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEYlIRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHf0bDVVjGnw_6AKVzeiQOB_8M8dxOL9DpeEwkjiw8HM4E-74LxtqE8uQFw_aem_YgtXVtkvKSjI4fVgvjddEQ
Also I wanted to make a correction - Food and Wine has over 900K subscribers. I properly listed it on the chart but not in the content. It's now properly represented.
Finally, I've missed some great wine writers in the article and I'll add more in the notes as I remember them.
As a wine producer I am also concerned about the same topic and I feel that even if I am from the distant Somló mountain, I have come to similar conclusions in many respects.
https://somlo.substack.com/p/valamit-elrontottunk-we-messed-up
I think your POV is spot on. As a longtime wine writer who only wrote about wine for 13 years, I was able to do so professionally without needing a second or part-time or even full-time job while writing as as hobbyist, as many others have done. It was possible to earn a living in this space until the pandemic when suddenly the entire model shifted along with the rise of influencers. There is little to no ad budget left now that much of that money has shifted to social / influencer campaigns. In response, I spent the last two years developing my own project which launched on Monday. I am expanding beyond wine to embrace all drinks as well as food, travel, and lifestyle to cast the widest net for audience and ad dollars as I’m working in a different niche - the sustainability space. I have entirely self-funded the project with the money earned as a professional wine writer but realize this project has to grow into a brand not just remain a magazine in order to survive. Oddly enough, the best performing article since launch: my definitive list of the best wines in Chile. http://azureroad.io/ Have a look! Thanks.
Lauren, so great to hear from you and I forgot to add you to the great write list. I love Azure Road and I already subscribed! LMK how I can best support you and your new endeavor.
Good take and showing us daylight Paul.
With regard to solutions, advertising is a fair suggestion after reading from your article the challenges of wine media.
My concern is advertising is difficult to execute. Wine brands have a hard time hitting the message in advertising. And it goes against what many current engaged consumers, and surely what the future younger consumers, crave with wine: Authenticity.
Wine is often about discovery, learning, sharing and (more and more) experiencing. Further, 99% of wine brands cannot afford to scale advertising in the current state. Hence wine brands currently rely on dedicated wine publications and with investment in Public Relations firms to get exposed for the other media outlets you propose.
As I would expect, an amazing perspective from you my friend. I agree that traditional advertising has not been the most successful so activating it with non-wine publications is going to be a challenge of failing forward. Perhaps a group of wineries banding together to propose a new model? Or larger wineries collaborating on using funds normally targeted for the Spectator or Enthusiast to ensure they fund a new wine section?
I am a giant fan of earned media from PR firms but, without enough outlets, all of our wineries are fighting for tiny, finite space. Somehow we need to find a way to earn back regular wine sections. Maybe host their advertisers dinner with donated wine? Just trying to think out of the box.
The same metrics can be applied to Travel writing. There once were over 40 full time travel editors with dedicated travel sections in newspapers now there are less than 10. And content marketing/advertorial is the norm.
Thanks for the Substack love, Paul. Always insightful. Especially appreciate the grace notes at the end by two literary maestros.
this is a great article Paul. I especially liked Causes of death versus Google Search versus media reporting - eye-opening!
Hey Paul — Interesting piece! Could you please elaborate on how you'd define a Wine Aware reader? Or point us to a source who might have coined that concept? Please and thank you!
I agree. But I'm also curious about 'wine interested'. I think it's very hard to establish meaningful numbers here. Many people may be quite interested in wine when they have to be. "Which wine should we have when your boss comes to dinner?"
Some become briefly interested when on holiday
I agree with Paul that the number who think about it daily is tiny. Bear in mind that only 11% of French now drink wine regularly. And only 20% or so of Americans do so with *any* meaningful kind of frequency (with 2/3 never touching it)
The triangle of engagement came from a VinTank study that analyzed millions users from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Delectable and Vivino. The data science team determined that Wine Interested people had mentioned variety, region, or brand at some point while Wine Aware people had only discussed "wine" in conversations.
I'd need to dig deeper into that. Does it mean that a person saying 'We drank Barefoot Moscato' is more 'interested' than someone who casually referred to the Chateauneuf they drank as a 'good bottle of red'?
Yes, when measured over time and total volume of conversations. Also, they accounted long tail exceptions and for anomalous spikes in conversations (e.g. promotions to #hashtag the brand). They grouped them into cohorts for detailed psychographic reports. Do you remember the 5 Tribes Report from VinTank?
I just looked it up. I only found something from 2016. Is there something more recent than that?
Sadly that was the publish date and no updates. It was a seminal report and analyzed more data than anyone at the time and more than is possible now since GDPR and CDC. We kept the data set running for years and it remained consistent. To do that kind of analysis the best source now would be licensing Foursquare data.
Thank you. Maybe time to republish that!
Brilliant analysis
"Read by Antonio's aunt" Ha ha!
I forgot to mention one of the great examples of trade led content - https://brucejack.com/jack-journal/
Great article and analysis. I've been saying for years that outside the 11% you identified as wine lovers, there really is no such thing as a wine consumer. There are people who love travel and drink wine when they go. There are people who drink wine while conducting business. Or people who love history and culture but among those 89%, there are no wine consumers. It's incidental and it's the media that reaches them that's important. Also, wineries need to learn where wine intersects with their customers' lives and consider how they can help them get the most out of those interests. When constructing emails that constantly push wine transactions, it's worth keeping in mind that there are 350 billion emails sent around the world everyday and it's estimated that up to 95% end up in junk folders or go unread. The focus should be on building customer relationships and that requires learning more about their non-wine lives.
It depends how you define 'wine consumer'
There are almost certainly lots of keen Barefoot drinkers who *technically* can be called 'wine consumers. And some 'wine lovers' who - for health reasons, possibly - 'consume relatively little
I agree that the history and culture - whatever Jefford and Asimov may say, and however eloquently - may be of relevance to very few. Including some who buy and enjoy fine wine.
But yes, of course we have to find where any wine fits into the life of any target customer (to use another term), whatever their relationship to wine as a subject
#this
Not all Forbes wine writing is junk. This piece took a bit of thought.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulcaputo/2024/05/09/port-for-a-new-generation/
It's easy to blame wine writers for not engaging an indifferent public. I'd argue that the lakes of overpriced, abysmal wine do the most damage.
Paul, thanks for reading. I did not say all Forbes writers or writing is junk. That would be like me saying that all blogs are junk. I did say that there is no editorial oversight and there are a lot of bloggers using the masthead to legitimize their content (even if it is biased, regurgitated press releases, or poor writing). On top of that Forbes pays based on performance, not on the value of the content, which encourages a certain type of content. Since most readers are not media literate they don't realize that Forbes Contributors are just bloggers on that platform.
I doubt the public is indifferent because of the quality of wine. I also don't wine writers we should yuck other people's yum. It only hurts the industry. Instead they should try to elevate those consumers to wines that have a sense of place and style and why they should take that journey making better wine a part of their lifestyle vs just an adult beverage.
The core reason people are indifferent is because the majority of people, even engaged wine drinkers, can only consume so much wine content or don't care enough to be subscribed to wine specific content. It's like asking people who like movies to read Total Film or SFX, or people that like music to want to subscribe Spin or Pitchfork. We need wine content intersecting where they read about other topics.