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News
New York Times execs hit the bottle
The global recession has forced bosses at The New York Times to turn to drink in an effort to banish the economic blues.
With plunging advertising revenues and plummeting sales, the newspaper publisher has announced it is to enter the wine business with the launch of The New York Times Wine Club.
The new venture will offer members a selection of wines at two price levels – $90 or $180 per six-bottle cases, while customers can choose to have wine delivered every one, two or three months.
Thomas K. Carley, senior vice president of strategic planning at the Times Company, admitted that the formation of a wine club was an unorthodox move by the publisher, and is one of several such ventures the company is considering.
He said: “The Times is looking at a lot of different ideas for engaging our audience to make statements about what are our strengths, what are the ways that we can delve further into our audience and bring them products and services that basically enhance the bond with The New York Times.”
Carley said that the club would be run independently of The Times’s food and wine editorial sections, “so there would be no conflict or appearance that our critics were selling.”
With that said, highlights from wine-related Times stories appear on the club’s web site – www.nytwineclub.com – and members will receive booklets of Times recipes from its archive meant to be paired with each shipment of wine.
The club’s wines will be selected by The Global Wine Company, which selects the wine largely from small, family-run vineyards.
Alice Ting, executive director of brand development at the Times Company, believes the club will open up a world of undiscovered wines to members.
“I can’t say that you wouldn’t be able to find them anywhere in the United States, but they’re not widely available,” she said.
The move by the The New York Times is a further signifier that US newspapers are viewing wine as a bonus revenue stream as they seek to ride out the economic storm.
Other publications to have started wine clubs include The San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Area public broadcasting organization KQED, Sunset Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes.
Alan Lodge, 24.08.2009