It has become painfully evident to me that wine writing as a journalistic niche
is in crisis at present. Newspaper and magazine positions are being eliminated:
print publications that include wine coverage are disappearing. Only a small
number of wine critics are able to successfully charge for subscriptions.
There are many reasons for this trend but the ten major causes include the
following. (1) The market for fee-based wine advice is tiny and shrinking. (2) A
tremendous amount of free wine advice is available now online and people will
take what they can get for free. (3) Consumers are becoming wine critics
themselves. CellarTracker, for example, has a database of more than 1 million
free tasting notes created by wine enthusiasts. (4) Everyday wine drinkers are
becoming more trusting of their own palates. (5) Wine publications have not
attracted younger readers. Bloggers appear to have the most chance to resonate
with Generation Y, even though the expertise and accuracy of wine blogs is often
suspect. (6) Inexpensive or free phone Apps with extensive wine ratings are
widely available. (7) Becoming a wine writer is now financially a much more
difficult proposition as wine prices have increased. Even Robert Parker, Jr.,
who at one time bought most of the wine he tasted, now admits that free samples
make up by far the largest portion of the wines he tastes. (8) Creating,
managing and maintaining a fee-based website is expensive and time consuming.
(9) Wine publications from the Internet are easily passed around and shared
among friends even though only one member of a friendly group is a paid
subscriber. (10) The economic recession has severely affected fine wine sales.
Retailers report that the market for over $40 Pinot Noir, the “dead zone,” which
includes a majority of the wines I review, has vanished in the last year.
I have run into many headaches administering my website. PayPal has been
difficult to deal with to say the least. A couple of months ago someone hacked
into my website, diverting Googlebot from my site, and completely erasing my
presence from Google search. I could go on about the many challenges I have
confronted, but you get the idea.
Beginning January 1, 2010, the PinotFile will again become a free online wine
newsletter. I will not e-mail a pdf copy of the newsletter as in years past
when the newsletter was free. All past newsletters and the complete features of
the princeofpinot.com website will be freely accessible.
Please understand that I am not unduly discouraged by the lack of a market for
fee-based coverage of wines and in particular Pinot Noir. I will continue to
keep my pulse on the world of Pinot Noir and chase down and report the stories
that matter. I promise to continue to attempt to take wine journalism in new and
important directions. You can still depend on the PinotFile to discover the best
Pinot Noir and tell you how to get your hands on it. Princeofpinot.com will
continue to be the largest and most informative Pinot Noir database on the
internet.
Someone invite PoP to post here - he can even announce the new issues here (provided he posts some significant excerpts too), perhaps driving some traffic to the newsletter.
Can’t say that I’ve ever heard of the Prince of Pinot, but I do understand many of the factors he cites in his e-mail. I currently subscribe to three electronic subscriptions (EBob, Tanzer & Meadows) because I generally like to read about wine-related issues, but lately I have been questioning the value I get from doing so given all the shtuff out on the internet. Certainly a tough way to make a buck if you’re trying to do it legitimately.
Yeah I enjoyed reading the articles but wasn’t compelled to subscribe. I’m glad that he’s continuing, that it’ll be free again,
and I hope that he can find an acceptable advertising revenue model instead.
It’s sad he has to give up the paid site, but he started to do it at the wrong time.
Also his site wasn’t setup correctly. If one really wanted to, one can easily download his pdf newsletters through a google search.
i feel the same but when i read PoP before he went PPV i noticed he never really found a PN he disliked and that made me skeptical about Rusty’s critiques. i believe he is an eye doctor by profession?
Rusty is a super guy doing very balanced Pinot reviews. I feel a bit guilty for not being more supportive, despite his cali-centric focus. He has an experienced palate and appreciates a wide variety of styles.
One of Rusty’s “rules” is that he didn’t print reviews of Pinots he didn’t like. I always found his articles very well done and interesting. But, paying for another subscription at this time just didn’t make a lot of sense for me. Rusty is also a sometimes Grape Radio interviewer. He is a retired eye doc - with a passion for pinot.
Maybe he can be another one of the automatic links to CT. Would give my Pinot stash some more notes.
C Wan’s right, the articles were always available on a Google cache link. Rusty is excellent and I think timing was everything here, unfortunately. He’s very knowledgable about Oregon, not just California. His taste is impeccable. I really enjoy his work on Graperadio and am glad he’ll have the opportunity again to reach the widest possible audience. Just hope there’s a decent way to get him paid. Knowledge and talent are worth something.
Sad to see this. PoP is a great guy. I’m sure things will keep rolling for the site, and hopefully his readers will pick up. I’m a fan of his obvious passion for pinot noir.
Ted may be onto an idea… Perhaps Rusty, as well as other free sources of information could look into a moderate fee for integration into CT. I would be happy to pay a lower price to have his reviews attached to my wines. That being said, Rusty is dealing with many of the same issues that the whole media industry is facing – advertising is down 40%+ and people are conditioned to get content for free.
Best of luck, Rusty – we may not always agree on the wines, but you are a true gentleman and have introduced me to some real gems!