WHY NEWSPAPER FOLK MAKE THE BEST FLACKS
Take It From the Deans of Winery PR
By Alan Goldfarb
April 19, 2022
We were sitting on deck chairs, next to the pool in the backyard of Harvey Posert’s house, if I recollect, on Zinfandel Lane in St. Helena. This I believe was in 2009 when I began a slow transition from wine journalist to winery PR flack*. Harvey was explaining – and revealing to me what I took as sacred PR inside baseball secrets – which wine writer was on the “take” (meaning they accept freely, wine, dinners, lodging, etc.) and which media types never take anything; but I’d better watch out, because she’s as an old-school newspaperwoman as there is; and she writes what she believes to be the truth about your wine.
Old school newspaperwomen and men.
Harvey had printer’s ink in his veins; as an old-school newspaperman as they come. His experience as a reporter helped shape his 30-year wine public relations career, with the Wine Institute, then as Robert Mondavi’s frontman, and finally as the guy who propagated the myth of 2 Buck Chuck for Freddie Franzia.
He, who along with Dan Solomon, who for years, fended off criticism for Ernie & Julio Gallo and then for Delicato – were the deans of winery flackery. They were hardened newspapermen, who knew how to tell a story, who knew where all the wine writers were and what they wanted; and knew precisely the kinds of wines they liked and which they didn’t.
Do not misconstrue: I would never compare myself to Harvey and Dan, but I too am an old newspaper guy. I know many of the media members in my database. After all, they were my colleagues; and I know the new members of the wine writing and podcasting community; and know what kind of stories they’re after. The difference is, there are less of them now than when Dan and Harvey were plying their trade. But the ones that play in the modern wine media space, are the ones I now engage and forge relationships. I learned well from my wine PR idols; I'm on their shoulders, helping to tell my winery clients’ stories and disseminate news to scoop.
Many years ago, it was newspapers that were the training ground for public relations people to naturally migrate. Now, that "platform" has morphed into the maw of social media, the internet and podcasts. Who else is there, who knows how to tell a good and authentic story, then old newspaper folk? Who else then but a newspaper winewriter – who knows the arena like no other, as I had covered it from a lifestyle, commerce, agricultural, and political landscape – is best suited to put a winery on the map? I specialize in those small, family run wineries, which are finding it increasingly difficult to get attention from the country’s media.
So, I’m here to tell the media about you, your wines, and your story. Newspapers may be on their death knell, but old newspapermen live to tell the stories.
Or as the now-late Harvey Posert once explained: “I had planned on a career in the newspaper business. Somehow, I got sidetracked.”
Check out this space weekly when I’ll tell you about my adventures along the winery media relations trail. Go to the “Contact” page to leave comments.
*FLACK: Pejorative for a public relations person. It arose in 1946 to mean “a press agent; a publicity man.” While its origin is unknown, the earliest use of “flack” was a verb meaning “to flap, flutter; to flap the wings; to throb, palpitate.”