Home The 1% Club Podcasts Editorial News Picture Gallery Two Views Sommelier Chef's Table Front-of-House Features Book Reviews Travel The Guides Michelin Guide Relais & Chateaux National Guides Europe 25 Contact |
Home The 1% Club Podcasts Editorial News Picture Gallery Two Views Sommelier Chef's Table Front-of-House Features Book Reviews Travel The Guides Michelin Guide Relais & Chateaux National Guides Europe 25 Contact |
The broadsheet restaurant critic – Here to stay?
August '08
Should we believe that oft said bastion of information
known as wikipedia, then the critic stems from the
Ancient Greek word krites, meaning “a person who
offers reasoned judgement or analysis...interpretation
and observation.”
Whether the current crop of broadsheet restaurant
critics fulfill this definition is a matter for a separate
debate, for now we simply wish to ask: How do we
choose one to follow?
It can be many things – writing style, knowledge,
experience, weight or strength of opinion, or just plain
entertainment value.
Most typically we choose to follow the critic whose
taste, style and opinion is most closely matched by
our own.
Why? When we go to a restaurant we want to know in
advance, with great anticipation, that we’re likely to
enjoy ourselves.
There may, however, be the more thorough – or
cautious – who read them all and give greater weight
to some over others.
After all fine dining is an expensive business and
proportionate investment in having a good time is
often required.
So is the broadsheet the natural home for these
folks? They all have them; from Jay Rayner to AA Gill
or Terry Durack to Michael Winner.
To understand the future we need to at least analyse
the past and present.
With broadsheets that is as easy as ABC; no not a
sound knowledge of the alphabet (although essential
in journalism), nor is it the American Broadcasting
Company.
No. For these purposes we refer to a more
appropriate version of the acronym, namely the Audit
Bureau of Circulations.
The “Bureau” is tasked with measuring and
monitoring circulation figures of our beloved
newspapers across both print and digital media.
Very useful for positioning and justifying advertising
space or indeed, depending on who is up or down this
week, just plain bragging rights.
Today, The Guardian Newspaper, for example, enjoys
around 140 million internet page views a month from
approximately 30 million unique visitors.
Wow! My first and only utterance – Wow!
Indeed every single broadsheet enjoys at least 100
million page views a month and the figures across the
board are rising rapidly.
Rewind to the winter of 1995. There was no internet,
not at least as we understand it today. Yes there were
Compuserve and America Online but these were
relatively fledgling private communities.
All content was textual and connection speeds across
modems were at best 28kbps; you might wait three to
five minutes for a page to load. A far cry from access
to the full functioning, graphical, any place, any time,
multi mega bit instantaneous connections we take for
granted today.
One day in that same year, I was travelling with a
colleague to meet a corporate insurance client. This
colleague was a special one, one who had been flown
to Europe from the United States to evangelize about
the future of the “internet.”
He said something I will always remember about
newspapers – “the internet,” he said, “will never
replace the daily newspaper, people like to sit down
with a physical newspaper. No, no matter how much
content, or how fast or how slick, they’ll always be a
newspaper, it’s a cultural thing.”
Was he right? One might argue that the decline of the
physical newspaper is inevitable with the saturation of
now satellite TV news broadcasting combined with
internet fingertip news.
August '08
Should we believe that oft said bastion of information
known as wikipedia, then the critic stems from the
Ancient Greek word krites, meaning “a person who
offers reasoned judgement or analysis...interpretation
and observation.”
Whether the current crop of broadsheet restaurant
critics fulfill this definition is a matter for a separate
debate, for now we simply wish to ask: How do we
choose one to follow?
It can be many things – writing style, knowledge,
experience, weight or strength of opinion, or just plain
entertainment value.
Most typically we choose to follow the critic whose
taste, style and opinion is most closely matched by
our own.
Why? When we go to a restaurant we want to know in
advance, with great anticipation, that we’re likely to
enjoy ourselves.
There may, however, be the more thorough – or
cautious – who read them all and give greater weight
to some over others.
After all fine dining is an expensive business and
proportionate investment in having a good time is
often required.
So is the broadsheet the natural home for these
folks? They all have them; from Jay Rayner to AA Gill
or Terry Durack to Michael Winner.
To understand the future we need to at least analyse
the past and present.
With broadsheets that is as easy as ABC; no not a
sound knowledge of the alphabet (although essential
in journalism), nor is it the American Broadcasting
Company.
No. For these purposes we refer to a more
appropriate version of the acronym, namely the Audit
Bureau of Circulations.
The “Bureau” is tasked with measuring and
monitoring circulation figures of our beloved
newspapers across both print and digital media.
Very useful for positioning and justifying advertising
space or indeed, depending on who is up or down this
week, just plain bragging rights.
Today, The Guardian Newspaper, for example, enjoys
around 140 million internet page views a month from
approximately 30 million unique visitors.
Wow! My first and only utterance – Wow!
Indeed every single broadsheet enjoys at least 100
million page views a month and the figures across the
board are rising rapidly.
Rewind to the winter of 1995. There was no internet,
not at least as we understand it today. Yes there were
Compuserve and America Online but these were
relatively fledgling private communities.
All content was textual and connection speeds across
modems were at best 28kbps; you might wait three to
five minutes for a page to load. A far cry from access
to the full functioning, graphical, any place, any time,
multi mega bit instantaneous connections we take for
granted today.
One day in that same year, I was travelling with a
colleague to meet a corporate insurance client. This
colleague was a special one, one who had been flown
to Europe from the United States to evangelize about
the future of the “internet.”
He said something I will always remember about
newspapers – “the internet,” he said, “will never
replace the daily newspaper, people like to sit down
with a physical newspaper. No, no matter how much
content, or how fast or how slick, they’ll always be a
newspaper, it’s a cultural thing.”
Was he right? One might argue that the decline of the
physical newspaper is inevitable with the saturation of
now satellite TV news broadcasting combined with
internet fingertip news.
And after all, the physical newspaper is always a day out of
date! To a point the ABC trend figures disagree. Yes, there
has been a decline in circulations but only a marginal one.
In fact the opposite appears to be true: Newspapers have
seized the opportunity offered by the internet – their digital
sister products – by grasping access to a wider audience
both demographically and geographically.
In 2004, when fine-dining-guide began, I clicked the ‘contact
the author button’ on the digital LA Times and emailed
David Shaw.
Mr Shaw had produced a fascinating article on molecular
gastronomy; within five minutes he had responded,
positively, from his first generation Blackberry.
The key points here are several – reading the LA times from
30 miles west of London, contacting the author and getting
a speedy response. The latter two have become internet
watchwords: Interactiveness and responsiveness.
Terry Durack’s column in the Independent, for example, has
been reproduced on the internet as an interactive diary or
blog. More Interactive and more responsive than we have
ever experienced before from broadsheet journalism.
So are there any downsides for the broadsheets and their
critics? Well yes, as with any business where there is open
access to the market then competition will thrive.
In the digital age we all have access to a wider audience!
Be it websites, blogs, forums, social networking or
podcasts; every single enthusiastic amateur has the
opportunity to present a new form of curriculum vitae to
potential employers.
Take just two examples – Andy Lynes and Andy Hayler –
today both are full time food writers.
For many years Andy Lynes worked for BT and his foodie
claim to fame was appearing in one of the TV semi finals of
the amateur master chef (in the good old days when it was
hosted by Lloyd Grossman).
Thanks to his passion and enthusiasm and not least the
opportunity of the internet, Andy Lynes is now doing, as
David Everitt-Matthias put it, “something he loves.”
Andy has made it all the way to the broadsheets! His
method was through extraordinary effort and commitment to
the UK Fine Dining Forum eGullet.
Andy Hayler on the other hand made his name and fortune
in the computer software and technology consultancy
business.
In recent years, he made the global press for being one of
the top innovators in Britain; at the same time he was
making news for eating at all forty-nine Michelin 3 Star
restaurants in Europe.
His exclusively top end restaurant focused website was an
original pioneer and includes reviews and detailed ratings
and rankings of all his many restaurant visits; including a
compulsive reading weekly blog.
Andy Hayler has made significant contributions to the Good
Food Guide and sat on the panel of Judges for Restaurant
Magazine’s World’s Top 50 Restaurants.
So what of the future? People have wider choices in their
selection of critics; physical or digital broadsheets aside,
the digital world is abundant with critics, and while there will
always be more opinions than experts (FD Roosevelt) there
are plenty of good ones out there.
These can only be good things – the broadsheets
pressured by the market to offer more value, more quality
content, more quickly, more interactively and more
responsively. It may also imply, as market mechanics do,
that the price goes down as competition goes up. More
journalists earning less money! Never!
Well maybe...perhaps the market for krites has taken a leaf
out of the Ancient Greeks book; there's plenty of room for
quantity without compromising quality - one that some
might argue certain restaurants could do well to recognise.
date! To a point the ABC trend figures disagree. Yes, there
has been a decline in circulations but only a marginal one.
In fact the opposite appears to be true: Newspapers have
seized the opportunity offered by the internet – their digital
sister products – by grasping access to a wider audience
both demographically and geographically.
In 2004, when fine-dining-guide began, I clicked the ‘contact
the author button’ on the digital LA Times and emailed
David Shaw.
Mr Shaw had produced a fascinating article on molecular
gastronomy; within five minutes he had responded,
positively, from his first generation Blackberry.
The key points here are several – reading the LA times from
30 miles west of London, contacting the author and getting
a speedy response. The latter two have become internet
watchwords: Interactiveness and responsiveness.
Terry Durack’s column in the Independent, for example, has
been reproduced on the internet as an interactive diary or
blog. More Interactive and more responsive than we have
ever experienced before from broadsheet journalism.
So are there any downsides for the broadsheets and their
critics? Well yes, as with any business where there is open
access to the market then competition will thrive.
In the digital age we all have access to a wider audience!
Be it websites, blogs, forums, social networking or
podcasts; every single enthusiastic amateur has the
opportunity to present a new form of curriculum vitae to
potential employers.
Take just two examples – Andy Lynes and Andy Hayler –
today both are full time food writers.
For many years Andy Lynes worked for BT and his foodie
claim to fame was appearing in one of the TV semi finals of
the amateur master chef (in the good old days when it was
hosted by Lloyd Grossman).
Thanks to his passion and enthusiasm and not least the
opportunity of the internet, Andy Lynes is now doing, as
David Everitt-Matthias put it, “something he loves.”
Andy has made it all the way to the broadsheets! His
method was through extraordinary effort and commitment to
the UK Fine Dining Forum eGullet.
Andy Hayler on the other hand made his name and fortune
in the computer software and technology consultancy
business.
In recent years, he made the global press for being one of
the top innovators in Britain; at the same time he was
making news for eating at all forty-nine Michelin 3 Star
restaurants in Europe.
His exclusively top end restaurant focused website was an
original pioneer and includes reviews and detailed ratings
and rankings of all his many restaurant visits; including a
compulsive reading weekly blog.
Andy Hayler has made significant contributions to the Good
Food Guide and sat on the panel of Judges for Restaurant
Magazine’s World’s Top 50 Restaurants.
So what of the future? People have wider choices in their
selection of critics; physical or digital broadsheets aside,
the digital world is abundant with critics, and while there will
always be more opinions than experts (FD Roosevelt) there
are plenty of good ones out there.
These can only be good things – the broadsheets
pressured by the market to offer more value, more quality
content, more quickly, more interactively and more
responsively. It may also imply, as market mechanics do,
that the price goes down as competition goes up. More
journalists earning less money! Never!
Well maybe...perhaps the market for krites has taken a leaf
out of the Ancient Greeks book; there's plenty of room for
quantity without compromising quality - one that some
might argue certain restaurants could do well to recognise.
| Copyright fine-dining-guide.com 2004-2005. All Rights Reserved. |
