An Interview with the Editor & Publisher of Mutineer Magazine

Consumer interest is shifting.  The current global economic state of affairs notwithstanding, industry stalwarts — companies like Motorola, Sony, and even Microsoft — are gradually losing their grip on the very products with which they've became dominant in the command for consumer currency and attention.  Why?  Because they've obstinately and tenaciously clenched onto the market paradigms they spawned, but which are showing prominent signs of age.   And so it is with the mainstream of print media (the bankruptcy of Tribune Co. being but one prominent tip of the iceberg) and the niche of wine media, in particular.  An increasingly prominent reality is that these periodicals are steadily their losing their relevance on the landscape of wine journalism to emerging alternatives — media with more contemporary voices, versatile platforms, and compelling content.  Traditional media's flippant disregard and arrogant disdain towards these newer players only accelerates their arguably imminent demise.  While they allow the band to play on, fresher alternatives are taking root and growing strong.  Could there be a bit of a mutiny underfoot?

Apropos, one alternative seeking to do its part to change the direction of wine journalism is Mutineer magazine.  It's a very new publication in the domain of fine beverage journalism, and one that's targeted to a generation that's growing in size and sophistication.  Many will say that this audience is feeling increasingly underserved by the dominent lineup of wine magazines whose journalistic formula, albeit tried and true and one that invariably comes delivered in glossy jackets, is frankly beginning to show a rather dull finish.  I spoke with Mutineer's editor-in-chief, Alan Kropf, about his vision for the magazine, what he sees as a void he seeks to fill, and his speculations about the future of wine journalism as a whole.

NM:  How is Mutineer Magazine different from other publications covering the beverage industry?  And what prompted you guys to launch it?

AK:  The inspiration to start the magazine came from my experiences as a sommelier.  While there has certainly been people who have made efforts to make wine more approachable, I didn't feel anyone was doing it with a magazine format.  I explored the idea and found a beer expert by the name of JJ Bagley to go in with me on it, along with a couple of other business partners to put it all together.  It's been an organic product that has grown: Issue 3 just came out two months ago at 84 pages, as opposed to the 32 pages of Issue 2.  The vision for the magazine also continues to grow.  And that vision is, really, capturing fine beverage culture.  But what's different for us is that we don't put 100-point scores on things, we don't tell you what you should be drinking.  Rather, we try to capture stories about beverages in general — wine, beer, spirits, coffee, tea, soda, water, anything you can drink — and then share those stories with our readers.

NM:  The magazine has a fresher, younger, more of a hip approach, and something that's much less traditional than your typical beverage or wine magazine.  Can you say a bit about your intentions with that approach and direction, not only visually, but also in terms of how you're presenting the information, in terms of content, photography, and the overall voice?

AK:  Traditional wine magazines made it very easy for us to be fresh and hip and stand out, because they haven't really done a whole a lot in that regard for themselves.  I actually do a lot of layout myself and something that we strove for is was to have the layout cater to the information, rather than the other way around.  It's so hard to make wine and beverages approachable as it is, that our first priority was to ensure that the information was readily and easily accessible by virtue of how we laid out the magazine.  Issue 3 was the first one where we really got the look we were going for, by having [regular] columns, which is something we didn't have in issues 1 and 2.  So now, the magazine has [specific subject matter] columns, which feature ideas that are revisited in each issue typically by different writers; anchoring those are a couple of feature articles to support the columns.  It's a formula that we're finding really works.  More and more people want to be a part of what we're doing; they reach out to us, wanting to be part of the Mutineer revolution, if you will.  And those people are helping to make our product better.

NM:  To whom do you see the magazine specifically appealing?  Who is your audience?

AK:  We aggressively target 21 to 35-year-olds, the younger demographic.  But we recently compiled some statistics and found that while we're heavily read by that demographic, we do have readers in all demographics.  In fact, some of our staunchest supporters are older folks.  We've realized that our stories are not age specific.  While we are going for that younger demographic — just because of the potential there and we feel that our content is something they can relate to — we've found that readers of all ages, backgrounds, and experience levels can relate to Mutineer Magazine because the stories that we're telling haven't been told (at least not that we've seen).

NM:  Would you say that it's a growing trend in journalism, this direction that you're taking, or would you say that you're more of pioneer?  And how do you see your role on the landscape of beverage journalism in general and wine journalism in particular?

AK:  I think, if anything, it's been the Wine Spectator(s) and the Wine Enthusiast(s) — the traditional magazines — that are the trends.  I think that Robert Parker came up with a cool idea, the 100-point system, which within reason is a great tool, but people have taken it way too far and now it's just too influential in wine journalism.  So, what we're doing is taking this idea of relaying stories and communicating culture, which is a very fundamental idea in journalism, and trying to apply that to wine writing.  There's a lot of great wine writing out there — unfortunately, a lot of it isn't in magazines.  We just want to tell the stories, we don't want to pretend like we have the answers, because we don't!  Realizing that, the best that we can do is get out there and immerse ourselves in the culture.  Right now, we're in the Pacific Northwest for six months, with the specific goal of learning as much about the local culture as we can and then communicating that to our readers.  After that, we'll go somewhere else.  We want to make those kinds of connections and share those sort of intimate experiences with our readers.

NM:  So, you're actually on location right now in the Pacific Northwest to do research for future issues?

AK:  Certainly!  A lot of magazines publish things like the "Seattle Report," "the New York Report," whatever — they go to these regions and try to cram the news they gather into one feature.  Well, you can't get under the surface of something when you do that!  [Spending time on location and digging deeper], you have such an awesome opportunity to establish a dialogue and really inform people about cool things that are happening in the industry.  Last night, I went to the Space Needle; I was there all night.  I talked to the wine director, I talked to the food and beverage guy, I talked to the head chef, I talked to all these people and found that they're doing some very cool things with that property.  And I'm excited to write about it in the upcoming issue!  As we speak, I'm driving up to headquarters for Jones Soda, because we're going to interview them; they're doing some great things with soda.  We want to get as many local producers and businesses as we can in our magazine.  And then, when we go to our next destination, we'll do the same thing — because there's that many exciting things happening in these different locations.

NM:  In a sense, you're engaging in nomadic journalism that's going much deeper than is typical, in an effort to get a comprehensive picture of a particular region that you're covering.  This is really very different, what you're doing.  Can you say more about the thinking behind it?

AK:  I think you hit it right on the head: we are nomads.  It's pretty cool, it's pretty fun, it's a bit different.  It takes a little getting used to, not being in the same place for more than a period of time.  But, in addition to aiding in our research, we're really trying to build a culture here, by being around the people we're writing about.  All these other magazines supposedly write about a culture, but they're in office buildings somewhere else.  Plus, while we're doing our research, we're also increasing our readers.  We're letting the industry know, "We're here to serve you guys; we're here to tell your stories, so use us as a resource and help us be the best that we can be."  We're all becoming a part of their lives, sharing experiences with them, and really building a solid readership that will hopefully make the Mutineer something bigger than it is now.

NM:  What's behind the magazine's name, Mutineer?

AK:  We struggled with the name for a long time.  We didn't want the typical "Wine (Blank)" name; we wanted something different.  We really did want the name to stand out.  We certainly accomplished that, though I think it's a challenging name to work with in some ways.  It was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson, a writer I admire a lot.  He wasn't always objective but he was always truthful, and his strength was in communicating the reality of a situation.  His work has always inspired me and there's a collection of it coming up called The Mutineer — and that seemed to fit with what I was trying to do.  Now, originally, it was called Wine Mutineer, which made a lot more sense, but when we brought on JJ Bagley — who's done such an outstanding job for us [in the area of beer] — it clearly wasn't a publication for just anymore, it never really was.  So, we changed the name to the Mutineer.

NM:  In broadening your focus in a way that's more inclusive of beverages other than wine, what challenges and what benefits do you face?

AK:  Well, it's been my experience that people are not only into wine.  If someone has taken the time to expose themselves to wine and learn about it, they're typically also into cocktails, brandies, whiskeys, beers, and coffees — and if they aren't into those other things, then in the very least they're probably open to learning more about them.  And with traditional wine magazines, I personally just get bored reading about wine for a hundred pages — there's only so much you can say about it before I start losing interest!  Plus, there are so many stories out there and so many people doing cool things, that I don't see it as a hindrance at all [to cover beverages other than wine]; I like mixing it up.  And I like choosing an all-star lineup of stories.  Instead of choosing, say, fifteen really cool wine stories, I choose the one or two best of the lot, and then I choose the best two beer stories, the best coffee story, etcetera.  I just skim the best off the top and try to put together the most compelling, relevant, and exciting magazine that we possibly can.

NM:  A lot of great wine writing, and perhaps beverage writing in general, is not in print; it's online.  Concurrently, there is some speculation that people are increasingly seeking out the internet as the main source of that information.  What are your thoughts on that, and how do you think of it all in the context of your magazine which is, in fact, a print publication?

AK:  I firmly support blogs as an avenue for writing.  In Issue 3, we highlighted twelve wine blogs that we feel our readers should be checking out.  In this next issue, we're doing twelve beer blogs.  In the next issue, we're doing twelve spirits blogs.  We want to share what these writers are doing with their blogs.  I think that bloggers are the purest, most exciting segment of writers on the planet right now, because they don't have a boss and they're not getting paid; they're just writing because they love it.  They're doing it purely out of passion, and there's something to be said for that.

But I think that blogs can never capture what a magazine can, because with a blog, you can write whenever you want — you can do ten posts a day, one post a day — whereas with a magazine you have a limited amount of page real estate, so you choose the best of the best.  Plus, I think a magazine carries a weight and a credibility with it that most blogs just don't have, because they haven't been around long enough, they don't have the readership to support that, and there's something to be said about a tangible product that you can hold in your hand, behind which there's money and resources and a lot of investment.  There's something that backs up what you're saying in a print format that I don't think that blogs have quite achieved.  But working synergistically, I think there's a lot of opportunities for blogs to grow and to continue to grow and be a presence in the communication scene.

NM:  On the subject of Old vs. New media and journalism, I wonder if Mutineer Magazine could actually be considered a link between the two.  On the one hand you're reaching out to a younger audience and acknowledging the newer tools and resources that this demographic fully embraces, but on the other hand you're lending a sense of legitimacy and something more substantive that's along the lines of traditional wine and beverage journalism.  Would you agree that what you're doing really is bridging the old and the new?

AK:  I would hope that we're taking the best of the old, the bits and pieces that people are really inspired by, and then building on that.  Our journalistic approach is that we really don't care how experienced you are as a writer, as long as you can write.  We actually prefer less experienced writers.  We want people who are excited and who know what they're writing about.  And more often than not, the people who know the most about these subjects aren't writers; rather, they're people who actually do these jobs — like winemakers or coffee baristas who have an interest in writing.  Those folks have the best stories to tell and those stories are things that transcend the gap in ages.  I think the things that maybe make us young and hip are the adjectives that we use (you'll see words like 'awesome' and 'cool' appear in our magazine) and the fact that we reference cultural icons (films like The Big Lebowski or famous Hollywood bar fights).  But we've had a great response from people of all ages even though we push it towards the younger folks.

NM:  To what extent is the content in Mutineer written by a core group of staff writers versus a wide and changing distribution of freelance or guest writers?

AK:  In a perfect world, I'd be completely happy just writing the Letter from the Editor and maybe one wine feature.  But we're still getting to that place, so right now I'm writing a couple of more articles than I think I'd prefer to.  I'm happy to do it and I love having the practice and the opportunity to tell these stories, but in a perfect world I'd love to be writing just one story per issue and really giving people out there, who are inspired to write, the opportunity to share their ideas through our magazine.  With every new issue we have more and more contributors, as we become more efficient and we learn how to work with writers and find people that are able to give us what we're looking for.

NM:  Do you have an ideal style or type of writer whom you see as the best fit for your magazine?

AK:  Certainly!  You've got to be inspired and passionate, you have to write in complete sentences, you can't get us sued, and your article submissions have to be something that people want to read.  If a writer meets those criteria, I'm interested in talking with them to see what they've got!

NM:  One major development for you is that you're soon to be distributed nationally.  Congratulations!  Can you tell me what went into getting to that step and what you think it will mean for you in the future?

AK:  Yeah, that's certainly great news for us.  We got picked up by the largest distributor in America.  We had actually gotten a couple of offers and so were in the fortunate position to be able to choose one.  We're looking at Issue 5 [which comes out in April] to be distributed nationally.  We're getting some very exciting placements, and we're excited to see the response that we get and what happens when this thing becomes available on a large scale.

NM:  In light of these recent development, where would you like to see Mutineer Magazine in the next few years?

AK:  I'd like to see the magazine simply existing as a successful business, first and foremost.  We're still in that startup stage, working 16 hours a day, so I'd like to see it get to a place where it's taking care of itself and we have more ambitious support for it.  But out in the community, I'd like to see this as something the industry trusts; I'd like to build that credibility with the industry we serve and build that relationship.  When [people in the beverage industry] have a story that they want to share, I want them to pick up the phone to call me or send me an email, and say "We really want Mutineer to the be place that we tell this story, that we share this news with the world."  If we can accomplish that, I'm a happy guy and I think we've reached our goal.

NM:  What do you hope your readers will learn from their experience in reading Mutineer?  What are you hoping to leave with them?

AK:  I hope that it affects their own experiences with food and beverage.  I hope that it makes them a smarter and more fulfilled consumer, which in turn helps our advertisers, helps the industry, helps the people that we're writing about.  I want people to read our magazine and then be able to go a store or a bar and have a better idea of how to enjoy the thing that really is one of life's great pleasures.  I want them to feel a part of it, I want them to be excited to read it, and I want the magazine to be a part of their food and beverage experience.

NM:  What broader changes are you seeing in the beverage industry as a whole, and the wine industry in particular?

AK:  I think that blogging has a long way to go in terms of its potential; it's still getting its feet wet and exploring what it can do — blogs have only been around for a few years.  In terms of change, I see publications like the Wine Spectator simply losing relevance, because no one cares what they think; [a magazine like that] is as boring to me as reading a VCR manual.  I just don't get it!  I think the industry in general has gotten away from that 'Here's the Answer' approach.  [As an example,] you've got the folks over at Wine 2.0 putting on these great events — they've got like 25 events, it's crazy how many events they're doing — and what they do is bring people in and they expose them to these beverages themselves.  I'm also a fan of Imbibe, another magazine similar to us.  We're seeing other businesses take an approach of just forgetting the reviews and instead talking about what's actually going on [in the industry].  It's pretty exciting!  You also see this with the wine bars popping up in the cities.  I see a growing trend of wine being returned to the people, and through that, lots of new ideas and lot of new projects are being born.

NM:  Would you say that you're part of a movement to democratize beverage media?

AK:  Certainly.  The internet definitely does that by default.  And if in the industry that isn't happening naturally — though I think it is — then we're forcing it, we're trying to be a catalyst for that to occur.  Information is free now.  If you want to be heard, you can; it just takes time, energy, a little willpower, and passion.  You can really do anything that you want.

NM:  Given what you see as their decreasing relevance, especially among the up-and-coming generation who are accessing their information about fine beverages  very differently than the generation before them, where do you see some of these more traditional beverage, and specifically wine, publications going?

AK:  I see them not doing too hot.  I don't think they have a great relationship with the industry.  I think wineries, in general, fear them more than they embrace them, because these people are coming to their wineries or they're soliciting for their bottles, and they're judging them!  This beautiful beverage that someone takes years to make and invest they're whole life savings into creating, and someone's going to take it and put a number on after trying it once?!  Maybe it's not ready, maybe it's not mature, and maybe it's not made for the 100-point scale!  That 100-point scale caters to big, bold, juicy, high-alcohol reds of Napa Valley — not the Albariño from Spain, not New Zealand Pinot Noir.  And then the ad prices that some of these magazines charge?  I know it's not a huge concern to consumers, but I don't see how they expect to build any kind of relationship with the industry that they're serving when they're fleecing them!  It costs over $30k for a one-page ad in the Wine Spectator, and as a result these smaller, but really cool wineries out there can't advertise — it's just silly, it's just stupid money.  And one of the things we do is we give out ads in every issue, and we're going to continue to do that.  We offer ads for free to people who just email us and tell us why they deserve a free ad; we want to give them the opportunity to advertise in a print format.  I see these other magazines frankly just losing relevance!

NM:  I think you've come full-circle on the meaning behind the title of your magazine.  It sounds like you're representing what really, in essence, is a mutiny among the newer generation of both consumers and writers of beverage journalism — a mutiny against the more traditional model which has basically been strong-arming the industry.

AK:  I think that you hit it on the head.  I don't think that I have the answer but I'm trying to create a publication that can cater to the answer, which is what people are thinking at the time.  That's all you can really ever hope for: sharing the present moment, sharing what's happening, and relaying the ideas, the passions, and the drives of all these incredible people who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of the ultimate fine beverage.

NM:  One last question: what's your desert island beverage?

AK:  I love Belgian sour beer — JJ Bagley, our beer editor got me really turned on to that.  I love Rieslings, particularly Spälese Rieslings from the Mosel region of Germany.  I love aged Cabernet from Napa; I'm not a young Cab guy, but I love the early '90s stuff right now.

The topography of wine media's landscape continues to fluctuate.  How it will settle is anyone's guess.  Will the stalwarts of traditional media continue to dominate, perhaps even in different manifestations, or will they simply be relegated to an aging readership as they're replaced in the mainstream by fresher alternatives like the Mutineer and its ilk?  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, to learn more about this fresh, hip, and progressive resource for today's drinker and to the get the absolute latest in its fine beverage journalism, visit Mutineer Magazine online.