From my Creators Syndicate column this week:
Though I didn’t attend, I followed the third annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, Wash., with great interest. That was easy enough to do because the bloggers inundated Twitter and Facebook with frequent updates as the event proceeded.
Most of it was innocent banter, some of it highly entertaining, but there was one post on Facebook that gave me pause. The headline on the post, authored by blogger Tom Wark, read "Wine Writers vs. Wine Writers." Wark knows a thing or two about wine writers after a long career in wine public relations.
In his post, Wark seemed to be drawing a distinction between those who write about wine for print and those who’ve only been published digitally. My takeaway was that Wark — who has championed wine bloggers from the start and is no dispassionate observer — sees the two camps as snarky rivals, with the upstarts slowly but surely gaining the upper hand in the court of public opinion.
As one of the many wine journalists who publishes in both print and on the Web, I was both mystified and slightly miffed by the characterization. I never have and never will believe the medium is the message. Whether you are reading this in a newspaper or on the Internet, one thing is certain: You will only read this column as long as the information serves and/or entertains you.
The "us vs. them" narrative is largely a figment of the imagination, though I won’t deny that there have been heated exchanges in a number of forums between print wine journalists and wine bloggers. People with strong opinions will sometimes disagree. I imagine there have been heated blogger vs. blogger exchanges, too.
Whether they work for print or publish to the Internet, wine writers are driven by the same forces. They must communicate their ideas with clarity. They must work hard every day to establish and maintain their credibility. And, perhaps most importantly, they must find their voice — that stylistic nuance that makes you recognize them in a crowd.
To fail at any of those objectives would most likely lead to failure, regardless of the medium. I certainly don’t consider wine bloggers the enemy. In an increasingly digital age, I consider myself one of them. I haven’t the foggiest idea why Mr. Wark thinks otherwise.
8