Join my new Facebook campaign: Save the Wine column.
Following news that Sunday newspaper The Observer is slashing Tim Atkin MW’s weekly column, something has to be done to save wine writing being marginalised to specialist magazines.
The popular page, which Atkin has written since 1993, will go down to three wine recommendations a week, according to decanter.com. This follows Joanna Simon’s Sunday Times column being axed a year ago, replaced with an in-house journalist who knows little about wine.
Newspapers are cutting costs with dwindling circulations and a move to online media but wine is getting hit hardest. Why? Is wine seen still an elitist product? Not if the figures are anything to go by: more people are drinking wine than ever before. In the five years from from 2003, consumption of wines per head increased from 24.6 litres to 27.2 litres in the UK. This is forecast to rise over the next five years to 28.3 litres, according to the IWSR.
Foodie column inches have clearly grown, such as The Observer’s Food Monthly magazine. But wine has not shared in its success. Admittedly some national columnists could do with upping their game but Atkin’s column was thoughtful, accessible and entertaining. I bought the Observer rather than The Independent every Sunday because of his column and it was the first thing I read. Even my parents, who have little interest in wine other than a good deal at Tesco, enjoyed it.
How do we make wine more appealing to readers and save wine from disappearing from the print media? A Facebook campaign is a start but that won’t stave off the deeper malaise. What do we do?
