SV: Parker säljer the Wine Advocate
Från the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Parker intends to phase out the print version of the newsletter, which he built over the past several decades into one of the most influential voices on wine. He also said he intends to step down as its editor in chief, turning over editorial oversight to his Singapore-based correspondent, Lisa Perrotti-Brown.
Finally, the fiercely independent publication—which Mr. Parker has often described as inspired by his hero, consumer advocate Ralph Nader—will start accepting advertising, though none that is wine-related.
The moves in part reflect Asia's rise as a prime consumer of wine and other luxury goods. Mr. Parker said he is selling a "substantial interest" in the Wine Advocate to a trio of Singapore-based investors who will take over its day-to-day financial operations.
The company's headquarters, an office just down the driveway from Mr. Parker's home in Maryland farm country, is also moving to Singapore.
Although it is a niche publication, with only about 50,000 subscribers paying $75 a year for six issues, a perfect 100-point score from Mr. Parker's newsletter can make a winemaker's reputation and fortune.
Mr. Parker has almost single-handedly created markets for wines that once were overlooked, or even scorned. Chateauneuf du Pape in the southern Rhone Valley of France is just one example of a wine region he helped to transform from unheralded to world class. Today's high prices for first-growth Bordeaux are another development attributed to Mr. Parker's critical clout and scores.
Although the 65-year-old Mr. Parker has had offers in the past, he said the time was ripe for a change. "The Asian market has come of age in the last decade or so, and it would be unrealistic not to expect to be part of it," he said. He declined to name his new investors but described them as "young visionaries" in the financial-services and IT fields who had presented him with a plan he couldn't refuse. "They love wine, but they also saw a great business opportunity," said Mr. Parker, who will become chairman of the new company and will continue to review the wines of Bordeaux and the Rhone for the newsletter.
Mr. Parker said the print version might disappear before the end of 2013, and that he would offer incentives to print subscribers to make the change to an online-only format.
"Maybe we will offer them Kindles," he said.
More than four out of five Wine Advocate subscribers are American, but the new investors are planning an abbreviated Southeast Asian edition aimed at corporate clients like airlines and luxury hotels.
The newsletter also will put more emphasis Asia's nascent wine industry. Ms. Perrotti-Brown plans to hire a new correspondent likely to be based in China.
"The correspondent will cover wines produced in China, Thailand and other Asian countries," she said, and will help to produce tasting events, another focus of the new Wine Advocate.
Ms. Perrotti-Brown will continue to review wines from Australia and New Zealand "in the short term," and is planning to add more reviews overall, including a new section on so-called "icon wines," the greatest wines produced in key regions around the world.
But accepting advertising, which it has long refused to do to safeguard its independence, may be the Wine Advocate's greatest change.
"We envisage eventually allowing some advertising, but only from sponsors where there is absolutely no conflict of interest," said Ms. Perrotti-Brown. A luxury watch or a credit card would be an acceptable, for example, but no winery or wine-related business will be allowed to advertise.
There will be changes in the Wine Advocate's staff as well; most of its wine correspondents will become full-time employees, instead of independent contractors. "We want to have more control over the reviews," said Ms. Perrotti-Brown, "And all events will be cleared by us too," she added, alluding to an incident in which Jay Miller, who covered the wines of Spain and the Pacific Northwest for the newsletter, stepped down last year amid accusations that one of his contacts had accepted payments from wineries. Dr. Miller has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.
Ms. Perrotti-Brown said the company is discussing terms with its correspondents, who include lead critic Antonio Galloni, as well as David Schildknecht, Mark Squires and Neal Martin, whom she and Mr. Parker hope will sign on as employees. If they decline? "There is a plethora of good wine writers out there. It's a buyer's market," she said.
