New Wine Magazines Coming

Posted by Tom Wark on Jun 24, 2005

Wine Journalism seems to be on the rise.

Two new wine magazines will be finding their way to market in the next couple of months. Both are focusing on niche markets, rather than taking on the whole universe of wine. This is the way of the publishing world today and it has been this way for some time now: narrow the focus of your coverage and zero in on a specific group that will be more loyal…all the time building a nice demographic base for subscriber support.

CA WINE

CA Wine is headed up by veteran wine journalist Jim Gordon. Jim used to be the Senior Editor at Wine Spectator before a stint at Wine Country Living. Jim’s forte has always been California wine. So, he may have found the perfect vehicle for his inclinations with CA WINE, a new magazine that will focus on California wine alone.

There has never been a magazine devoted specifically to California wine here in the states, which strike me as odd. Americans drink a larger percentage of CA wine than from any other country. Add to this the lifestyle possibilities associated with California and you have a lot of good content waiting to be explored.

WINE ADVENTURE

Wine Adventure is another new wine publications that is taking on Women as it’s focus; that is, the nexus between women and wine. The publishers correctly point out that the majority of wine is purchased by women, who have different perspectives on nearly everything than men do…and wine is no exception. Painting with the broadest possible brush, we can say that men tend to be trophy hunters when it comes to wine, while women tend to be "table setters". "Wine Adventure" will not review wines. Instead, the focus will be on education, travel and a more lifestyle approach to wine. Think "O" Meets "Wine Spectator."

There is also word that a new on-line wine site is in development that will bring together some of America’s best wine journalists who will be writing exclusively for the site. It has been quite a while since the Internet has been the host to a serious wine writing/journalism site. The last one of any note was "Wine Today", a New York Times owned web site that was really very good, but probably cost the New York Times way too much money. When I get the word it’s OK to talk about the intricacies of this new Internet Wine Writers site, I’ll bring the details.

Publishing is an industry that rarely breaks new new ground. It’s an industry that tends to follow the trends of the economy. If measures of the economy is telling us that people are cutting back their spending, you can expect publishers to emphasize "Value" and you see more "Do-It-Yourself" magazines. If the economy demonstrates that disposable income is up, you see more luxury oriented magazines. We’ve seen wine buying rise over the past year. We’ve seen more purchasing of higher priced wines. We’ve seen more wine drinking. The new magazines make sense.