Skip to main content
Whining about Wine
I was flipping through the Saturday New York Times and was intrigued by a full page ad from Wine Spectator that screamed FREE ACCESS in massive type. The pitch is to provide visitors to the website with free access until October 1st. The offer provides access to 200,000 wine ratings and tastings as well as access to newsletters and other content. In mousetype the limitations are barely visible to point out that "Free Access does not include use of site personalization tools or the ability to post comments on our Editors' Blogs". All in all a pretty standard online publishing offer of giving some content away for free in the hopes that you will become a subscriber.

I clicked through on the link and not surprisingly was confronted with an email capture box with another bit of fine print. This one disclosed that "By entering your e-mail address in the field above, you give WineSpectator.com permission to send occasional e-mails regarding promotional items that we feel might be of interest to you." I'm sure by accumulating lots of email addresses they'll be able to pay for a Saturday page ad in the NYT but their method seems a bit heavy handed in this day and age. There was no opt out of this page and I needed to validate the email address.

Interestingly when I ran a Google Search for "wine spectator" they came up first and second in the organic listing but their was no paid listing for them. The real surprise came when I looked at the third link from a site called Dr. Vino. It highlighted a website from author Robin Goldstein. He created a restaurant that did not exist and managed to win a "Wine Spectator Award of Excellence"! The only calls he got from WS where a message was left was from the ad sales people trying to convince him to buy an ad for $3000 +. Based on the article it seems that the Wine Spectator may be more of a paid listing directory business rather than an aficionado site. WS could also use some help on their web 2.0 and SEO/SEM strategies.

Wonder what would happen if someone created a Wikipedia/UGC site around wine? (If you know of one, pass it along).

Comments

Anonymous said…
Check out www.Snooth.com.
1:07 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You Should Never Say "What Customers Need to Understand is..." I always cringe when product people utter the words “What customers need to understand is…”.  To me it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how to serve a market.  I saw this sentiment reported in a recent  New York Times article  on the hearing aid market which explained that the pricing model is essentially a forced bundle where two thirds of the price was for service, including hearing evaluation, counseling and adjustments over the life of the product.  This approach has put a pair of hearing aids at or about $5,000. The manufacturers believe, and perhaps rightly so, that diagnosing and treating hearing loss are too complex for consumers to do using consumer devices, without the aid of a professional and therefore justifies the forced bundle.  However, in this age of self-service people will search out their own solutions. By assuming a status quo approach with forced bundles a...
26 comments
Read more
Trading Print Dollars for Digital Dimes in the Paperless Cockpit There was a fascinating article in the New York Times entitled the Paperless Cockpit . It describes the trend of airlines and private pilots to trade off 40 pounds of paper for a 1.5 pound iPad. One interviewed pilot summed the benefit up succinctly: “ When you need to a make a decision in the cockpit, three to four minutes fumbling with paper is an eternity.” There were a couple of other noteworthy points that the information industry can relate to as pilots embrace the “electronic flight bag”: Form Factor – The small, easy to carry tablet affords many benefits to pilots. As all professional publishers know, the shift to electronic offerings has been going on for decades. The Information Industry Association, the predecessor to the SIIA was founded over forty years ago for pioneering digital publishers. Early electronic products focused on news and financial data. However, accountants, consultants and ...
3 comments
Read more
Publishing Industry Contacts (Updated December 2019) As I've moved through the information industry I've collected contacts about associations, financial firms, companies, recruiters and consultants.  I've maintained it as a word document and am finally moving it online so that I can refer job seekers and industry researchers there.  I'm hoping it will be easier to update and more permanent.  Please send any additions, deletions or corrections to ed.keating@gmail.com or use the comment feature below. 1) Associations a) SIIA – Software & Information Industry Association. They cover the content and software area quite well. . i) FISD.net – Financial division of SIIA b) SIPA – Specialized Information Publishers Association (merged with SIIA) c) American Business Media – Founded in 1906, American Business Media is the association for business-to-business information providers, including producers of print publications, websites, trade shows and other medi...
Post a Comment
Read more