Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Print Journalists' "Whine Clubs"?

Tempranillo varietal wine bottle and glass, sh...Image via Wikipedia
Following the lead of  "cadillac" newspapers The New York Times and The Wall St. Journal, Gannett's flagship daily USA Today has established a Wine Club.
Members will receive a 10 percent discount on purchases from the Club, which will be run by My Wines Direct. Members may purchase six bottles quarterly for $69.99, with shipping an additional $11.99. Along with the wines, members receive tasting notes, information about the region and varietal and recipes for suggested food pairings. 
To set itself apart from the Times and Journal clubs, USA Today will involve reader tasting panels who will assist in selecting wines.  One might expect for brand identity reasons that the USA Today-selected bottles would contain less wine than its Times and Journal counterparts.
Print journalism has reached a new low--Merlot.
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1 comment:

  1. The New York Times and, particularly, The Wall Street Journal publish highly-regarded wine criticism. Yet, these experts have nothing to do with the wine clubs in question. You don't think some innocent, wine-loving readers will be misled into thinking otherwise, do you?

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