What future for the Fourth Estate?

Obviously, we are living in interesting times. The weight of bad news coming through every day makes you a little reluctant to turn on the TV, or log onto the computer, or heaven forbid, open a newpaper.

In fact, there is enough happening of a dramatic, life changing nature to cause you to gloss over some of the material pertinent to the wine industry. But big changes are happening, particularly in the media, that are going to have a dramatic effect upon the way our industry operates for a long time to come.

If you haven't noticed, wine publications are folding and wine review columns being jettisoned faster than stocks on the Zimbabwe stock exchange. Journalism the world over is in trouble, but nowhere more so it seems than in relation to wine writing.

Much of the problem with journalism relates to the funding model that keeps it alive. Newspaper advertising revenues are in freefall, with advertisers choosing to invest their hard earned (or what is left of it) into the internet as consumers rapidly abandon dated communication mediums for the convenience and immediacy of the world wide web. With the life blood of the industry being drained, it has become untenable for media empires to continue to pay big dollars for quality copy whilst at the same time keeping shareholders happy.

Something had to give, and give it has. Journalists are being laid off in machine gun-like fashion the world over. The full effect of the combination of both the global financial crisis and the aforementioned funding crisis of old media is taking hold, and yet we have really only seen the tip of the iceberg.

What we are being witness to here in South Africa is similar with regard to the wine media. The Afrikaans wine/lifestyle magazine 'Fynproe' has announced that it is folding and peripheral publications have scrapped their wine columns. Whilst wine has increased its profile in the wider community, the desire to read and learn about it seems to be dissipating, whilst others are choosing to source their information via the internet.

It's true too that the numbers of people who are interested in reading about wine are limited by the nerdy, often condescending way the wine message is communicated. It is never going to be a mainstream pursuit because of the elitist, intellectual leanings of wine drinkers and wine writing in general, a factor that hasn't seemed to have gelled with many people at the coalface of wine communication.

But where does this leave the South African wine producer who is trying to get their brand message out into the public domain? With an ever decreasing number of avenues to do this, what should they be doing in order to build brand awareness?

It's almost certain that the traditional pathways (print media, tv) will become increasingly less relevant. The internet, and the wine blogging community in particular will have to become a key part of every wine producer's marketing plan. With money likely to be tight over the next year or so, the likelihood of consumers turning to 'free' sources of information on the internet in lieu of paying for it may well become another of the new realities of the credit crunch.

This is one of the reasons why we have invested a ton of money into a state-of-the art website. It's a vehicle that can spread our message, whilst at the same time offering our customers a place to chat and interact with the staff. It's fresh, energetic, full of information and (we hope) visually pleasing.

Not to suggest that this will mean that Dombeya will become self sufficient in this respect by any means, but there is a need to be proactive, and the time to do that is now. We'll watch future developments with regard to the world's press with some interest.



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