I was recently having a conversation with a couple people who had various thoughts on the the print vs. online mediums for receiving news and information about the beer industry. There seem to be three main options:
- Online sources (blogs, dedicated beer websites, such as Beer Advocate, etc…)
- Free beer newspapers (Brewing News, Celebrator, etc…)
- Purchased beer magazines (Draft Mag, Beer West, etc…)
[poll id=”9″]
In my opinion, all three mediums have their place. I get most of my news and event information online, but I really enjoy feature articles, interviews, reviews, and other content in the free beer newspapers. I can’t say I purchase any beer magazines on a regular basis, but I’ll occasionally get one (maybe twice a year on average). I’m interested to hear what other people’s habits are. Obviously, this poll will be a bit biased since you are all finding it online…I’d likely get some different answers if I went to a bar and polled people.
Please leave any comments you’d like on thoughts regarding online and print beer news.
As a full disclaimer, in addition to running Seattle Beer News, I am also a writer for the Northwest Brewing News.
One thought here- you’re probably going to get skewed results since most voters are your online readers…
Jamie – yep, you are absolutely correct. As I mentioned above, I’m sure I’d get some more varied answers if I polled people drinking at a random bar.
Still interesting to see how many online readers use print media as well.
I definitely get most of my info online (Beer Advocate, Seattle Beer News, several others), but there is definitely added value to subscribing to print publications (I subscribe to BeerAdvocate magazine and All About Beer … All About Beer is far superior). While the comments online are helpful, they are mostly people’s opinions. The magazines provide several well-researched and usually well-written articles in each issue, along with reviews and other features.