Thursday, July 31, 2008

Blogging Matters to Harpers

I had a piece published on the Harpers, or should I say Talking Drinks, web page yesterday.

I had been talking to their web editor for some months as I knew they were looking at this area, and we had similar views. He invited me to write a short piece about the state of blogging and introducing the concept of blogs to their (probably sceptical) readers.

Hopefully I did the latter, but there wasn't room enough to explore all the sorts of conversations that are going on in the space available. That's what I do more of here.

If you are interested, please take a read and let me know your thoughts on "Why does wine blogging matter?" and pass on the link to others as well.

The wine business has always sought ways to reach out to consumers and communicate the personality and individuality of their wines, and now blogging - whether it be by the winemaker, the consumer with first-hand experience, or the trade professional offering a trusted review, makes this possible.


Lots of fun stuff to discuss at the upcoming European Wine Bloggers Conference

See you there?

6 comments:

Andrew said...

A good introductory piece- shame not more space for more details. Have they asked for a follow-up piece?

PS Thanks for the link in the article.

Robert McIntosh said...

no yet, and unfortunately jamie Coggans has now left. I will follow up to see if we can have a regular update on blogs, and maybe we can all chip in from time to time?

no problem about the link!

:)

Douglas Blyde said...

Did Jamie really need yet another plug?

Robert McIntosh said...

Jealous? :)

Well, it is more that Jamie is a well respected person, one of the very few of us who would be recognised in the trade as a blogger and, as it happens, a pretty good blogger

Douglas Blyde said...

I see your point about Jamie's profile being recognisable within the trade. He has, as somewhat of a pioneer, no doubt inspired many of us into blogging. And unlike a fair few lodging in this wordy business, he brings science aboard.

However, Harpers readers will no doubt already have encountered his words in print and online on numerous occasions. Another link, therefore, might be seen as reassuringly superflous.

Perhaps a relatively (metaphorically) fresh-faced blogger such as Alastair Bathgate would bring a different dimension: an original voice attracting significant hits for his humorous, but incisive style.

Robert McIntosh said...

you are right, of course

I would have loved to include loads more, such as Confessions of a Wino, and even the more controversial Intoxicating Prose.

I guess I was thinking of examples for most of the categories I mentioned in the article. Jamie was the journalist exploring other ideas, but I suppose I could have pointed to Andrew Jefford or Simon Woods instead, but I did want to include a journo, and one that would ring bells.

Hopefully thousands of visitors will now come to my site and find the "full" UK wine blog list, but who knows.

Any suggestions on how to follow this up? We could offer to put together a series of articles based on this!