People think wine writers are rich… Well, they’re not…. For instance, when you blog, are those billable hours for you?

I just went drove four hours south to write a story, had travel expenses, food, lodging et al. I got paid $250 for a 1,000 word story…

Think about it. That’s 24 hours non-paid other wise hours to get this job done… Three days plus the writing for $250. Writing took three hours, which totals 27 hours.I’ll do the math: $250 divided by 27 hours = $9.26 an hours, when I’m paid $100 for strict copy writing for those who want my services.

I think this may shed more light on the situation.

This is a complicated issue. Many other countries give government subsidies to their wine industries (and even more to other types of agriculture). From what I understand, the amount going to U.S. wine industry promotion is comparatively small. Without this sort of promotion, California wine wouldn’t be able to compete with subsidized countries, like those in Europe. (I don’t know if that makes it “right,” but that’s the situation. I’d be interested to know just how much taxpayers’ money goes toward CA wine marketing.

Having said that, our wine industry kicks in very little (at least, compared with countries like Australia) toward collective marketing and scientific research. (We’re running a big story in December’s Wines & Vines about the research funding crisis in the U.S. wine industry, by the way.)

As a wine magazine editor, I get invited to lots of junkets in foreign lands. Sometimes they are funded by local tourism boards or governments, but more often they’re funded by an importer that wants to generate publicity for its wineries.