Wine X Magazine Commits Sepaku
You never heard of it? Yeah, you’re not the only one. It’s funny, Wine X is getting more press in death than it ever did during its publication. Decanter has a nice round up on the situation. (You can read more of my comments if you scroll down the page.) Basically, Wine X Magazine spent too much time biting the hand that would have fed the magazine into solvency, flipping the verbal bird at corporate wineries, PR people, and others in the wine business.
Why would a wine company want to give advertising dollars to a publication like that? (I won’t devolve into a critique of the magazine’s content, but it’s use of out-dated slang, et cetera did make me embarrassed to be part of their target audience. Jelly beans? For fuck’s sake.) The magazine’s editor, Darryl Roberts, claims that the wine industry never supported the Gen X and Gen Y audience Wine X could deliver, claiming the industry chose to ignore the emerging market. From my experience, he was a passionate and pissed off guy. And though Roberts is right in stating that the wine industry has absolutely no clue when it comes to reaching a younger audience, Roberts is as guilty as the machine he criticizes.
It’s a simple case of both sides trying to get the bees without any honey. Magazines live and die on advertising, and Wine X alienated its best source of cash flow. The wine industry didn’t take Wine X seriously. I fear the magazine’s failure will reflect poorly on our generation amongst the old wine dogs.
Wine industry? As a generation, we’re fickle, we’re A.D.D. But if you wait too long to have "the talk" with us…we’ll be gone, drinking martinis like our grandparents, or kicking back with a six-pack. Oh wait, many of us already are. Look in the alt.weeklys, booze and beer sponsor DJ nights, industry nights, concerts, etc. What do you do? Throw us another crapping critter wine.
The longer you wait, the more it’ll cost you to try and gain our favor. Don’t count on us “coming around” when we are older or more affluent or whatever you’re waiting for us to be.
Wine industry, see the iPod. Beeee the iPod. Not the Zune.
February 21st, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Microsoft is the perfect analogy for wine companies, always chasing chasing chasing, but they don’t get it. But it hasn’t really hit them in the pocket book yet, so they don’t really care.
But they willllllllll…….
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:45 am
I first heard of WineX through Amazon.com - they were selling subscriptions there. But there were several complaints posted by Amazon customers about magazines not coming, etc. which scared me away. Too bad. They had the germ of a good idea.
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
So often the germs or seed of good ideas sprout into hideous and stupid plants. That magazine embarassed me as well. As misguided as an Mtv executive.
March 4th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I could never get past the X in Wine X. The same reason I couldn’t buy a Toyota Matrix. I would be just too much the obvious sucker. Like playing into the marketing most stereotyped view of my generation and liking it.
March 14th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
[…] The title is misleading because I actually subscribe to, and really enjoy the articles in, Wine & Spirits magazine in spite of the fact that their web site sucks. But with the recent talk of the demise of Wine X magazine (see here and here), which purported to be an alternative the mainstream wine media, it’s nice to see the arrival of another contender. While I was a huge fan of the idea of Wine X magazine I hated the reality of it. I found it’s faux hipster posturing to be just as pretentious as the wine snobbery they claimed to be standing up against. […]