An Evolution in Wine Blogging
I received an e-mail from Mark Fisher, the wine writer for the Dayton Daily News in Ohio. Mark wrote to let me know that he, though the Daily News, had launched "Yet another wine blog" they are calling "Uncorked".
It’s not "just another wine blog" for a number of reasons. In fact, it’s significant for a number of reasons.
To my knowledge, "Uncorked" is the first wine blog begun by a true Main Stream Media entity. On one level this is surprising. Consumers of MSM who are also interested in wine would be among the most reliable "come-backers", those people willing to return day after day to a media product. Wine lovers tend to be relentless in pursuit of knowledge. A wine blog is a natural product for progressive MSM members to begin. Yet, this is the first.
Second, I believe UnCorked is the first blog begun by a recognized wine writer: Mark Fisher, the Dayton Daily News’ wine writer. This is more understandable. Wine writers get paid to write. Giving it away isn’t really what they do. While it’s true that Mark is likely being paid for his efforts, it seems an important development in the world of wine blogging that a professional wine writer has taken it up.
But to the important stuff: Mark’s very good at communicating his passion for wine with words and UnCorked clearly deserves a place on your newsreader or in your book marks. His most recent post is a great one: "Top Ten Reasons Wine is Better than Beer". My favorite reason: You’ve never heard of a "Wine Belly."
Uncorked has a lot going for it. It has the power of a publishing house behind it. It has a wonderful writer and passionate wine lover behind it, and Mark seems dedicated to posting on a very regular basis.
Mark Fisher’s Uncorked….Check it out.
Not that it matters in the grand scope of things, but would Jon BonnĂ© from msnbc.com be considered a regular, mass-media wine writer? If so, his blog (http://amuse-bouche.net/) has been around for awhile and addresses a lot of things that he doesn’t have the opportunity to cover in his regular wine columns. He also has a mailing list that adds further background to what he’s thinking about (and why).
The cool thing about this approach is that it enables writers such as Jon and Mark to put forward a more general POV in their regular columns while being able to be more specific in their blogs. Ultimately, it comes down to who reads what’s posted and what they take away from it.
Dan
D.
Absoutely right….Jon does have his own blog. I overlooked it. Good catch
Define a recognized wine writer. Admittedly, OWF got started well before my wine writing, but I think I have reasonable wine writing street cred even two years into it.
Derrick: I’m thinking about those writers who work and write for MSM publishers on a regular basis. Your situation strikes me as being a part of this story: The cross over (blog to print, print to blog) that was bound to happen at some point. I think we’ll see a number of other bloggers cross over and vice-versa.
Ah, okay. I’m just getting defensive đŸ™‚
It will be interesting to see how it all evolves. At Toni Allegra’s first wine writers symposium, many of the attendees didn’t even know the term blog. And now the Association of Food Journalists and IACP have both had discussions about them.
And at what point is Alder no different than a wine magazine publisher. He takes ads, writes features, assigns scores, etc.