{"id":11501,"date":"2010-08-23T09:29:50","date_gmt":"2010-08-23T07:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=11501"},"modified":"2010-08-27T16:11:44","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T14:11:44","slug":"date-with-crush-2-warmer-not-perfect-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/date-with-crush-2-warmer-not-perfect-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Date with Crush!2 warmer, not perfect yet!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On Friday I received the second edition of Crush!, “South Africa’s finest digital food & wine magazine”, says the e-mail\u00a0providing the link.\u00a0\u00a0To make sure one knows how good it is, it promises “yet more brilliance for you in this issue” – that is if you thought that the first issue was brilliant!\u00a0\u00a0 I did not think it was, and wrote a blog post about\u00a0Crush1<\/a><\/span>, <\/strong>which respected food and wine guru and Crush! editor Michael Olivier was not happy about, but I am happy to see that he has taken note of some of\u00a0the feedback (we did invite Michael to comment, but he declined).\u00a0\u00a0 Crush!2 is much improved, but it is not there yet.\u00a0 Let me tell you why:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 The cover design\u00a0of Crush!2 is much better, with\u00a0barely any\u00a0distracting design features\u00a0on it – it reflects the best story of the issue, a wonderful chocolate spread, with the most beautiful photography.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0 On the “editorial page” Michael’s face is covered by the play button of the video again.\u00a0 The video was shot in Sophie Lindop’s kitchen while she was preparing the Chocolate article, he says in the video, and one can hear the ‘kitchen clanging’ in the background.\u00a0\u00a0 I could only get the video to run halfway, and then it broke off abruptly.\u00a0 I re-tried it numerous times.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Michael has addressed\u00a0the feedback about providing details of his editorial team (the button for it being very subtle), and a block can be opened to read this detail\u00a0– Petaldesign is the design company, with Matthew Ibbotson the Art Director, and Graham van de Ruit responsible for Flash animation.\u00a0\u00a0 The Crush! team is thin, it being mainly Michael and his wife on the editorial side,\u00a0with guest input from JP Rossouw,\u00a0David Cope\u00a0and Andy Fenner.\u00a0\u00a0 The block is so small that one struggles to read all the names.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0 A “How to Use this digital magazine” block is welcome, but contains numerous symbols that one must remember to be able to read the digital magazine more effectively.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0 The magazine has grown to 36 pages, and the multi-page Lindt Chocolate feature is wonderful, proving that the content does not have to be crammed onto one page, which happens on the “Michael Says” page.\u00a0 On this page, there are 3 book reviews, a focus on a Vineyard dog, “Michael’s Wine Finds”, a focus on Lynne and John Ford of Main Ingredient, and a “Wine Myth”, despite there being numerous other wine pages on which the wine stories could have been featured.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0 Advertiser support by Old Mutual, Pick ‘n Pay, Pongracz, Arabella Wines, and the Paranga\/Zenzero\/Kove\/Pepenero group has been retained, with new ads for Welgemoed, Arumdale and an advertorial for Spier.\u00a0 Michael has assured me that Pick ‘n Pay is not the owner of the magazine.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0\u00a0 On the “Essentials” page one cannot read\u00a0the labels on the Dalla Cia Grappa, NoMu\u00a0and Morgenster Extra Virgin Olive Oil packs, making pack recognition difficult.\u00a0\u00a0 If you click onto the packs, they are a little bigger.\u00a0 A green\u00a0i-sign provides more information.\u00a0 When one has clicked on a section to blow up the size, it does not guide one as to\u00a0how to reduce the size again, so one has to click to a previous page to get back on the page one was on, making this repeat process tedious over time.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0 The Spier double-page advertorial is weak, in being an illustration of the Spier estate.\u00a0 One assumes that if one clicks onto each of the “noticeboards”, that one can obtain information.\u00a0 If, however, one has opened one such information block, and not closed it, one cannot open the next block.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The worst problem about this page is the dominant Uwe Koetter competition announcement, which\u00a0clashes with the Spier promotion.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0\u00a0 The brand names of the wines presented with the recipe for Vegetable Cauliflower Cream Soup are unreadable, with the exception of Glen Carlou.\u00a0 When one\u00a0clicks onto the “Rollover” flash, it enlarges the packs a little, but does not make the labels\u00a0more readable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once again, when one has enlarged the labels to such an extent that one can read them, one cannot get back to the full page, and has to go ‘backwards’ to get back to where one was.\u00a0 A different recipe is matched to each brand of wine when one moves the mouse over it.\u00a0 However, the Glen Carlou recipe rollover\u00a0provides no details about serving numbers, difficulty of preparation, and prep and cook times.<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0\u00a0 The “JamieWho?” page is really odd, in that Michael is clearly trying to add a younger and more hip touch to Crush!.\u00a0 Blogger Andy Fenner, who recently “outed” himself as being “JamieWho?”, when he relaunched his blogsite, has almost two pages to himself, with his branding in the centre.\u00a0 As an ueber-brand and marketing conscious person, I am sure he must be shocked at the presentation of his page, with the funny petal-shaped buttons, inviting readers to read his La Mouette review, his muesli recipe, his visits to L’Avenir and Delaire Graff (very disappointing short one-paragraph summaries), and a lovely feature on Roxanne Floquet, the “Queen of Cakes”.\u00a0 I am not sure if the\u00a0thousands of readers Michael claims\u00a0his magazines go to\u00a0will know who “JamieWho?”\/Andy Fenner is, and will be impressed by his involvement.<\/p>\n

11.\u00a0 The “High Five” wine page has the same problem with label readability, as described above.<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0 The “Eating Out” page is interesting in that it is prominently branded with JP Rossouw’s name over two pages, but has a flash in the top right corner saying “The Foodie Fast Eats”, which is a short write-up by “The Foodie” (see below) of the Sunrise Chip ‘n Ranch (I did not pick up that there were mini write-ups about Jardine’s Bakery and Cookshop too, until alerted to these).\u00a0 However, “The Foodie” has his own\u00a0pages in the magazine elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0 A review of Johannesburg-based DW Eleven-13 by Rossouw is of no interest to Cape Town readers, probably making up a large proportion of the magazine subscribers.\u00a0\u00a0 A competition block blocks the readability of the restaurant review.\u00a0\u00a0 At the bottom of the page it mentions four restaurants under the heading “Crush also liked”, listing Blue Water Cafe, Wild Woods, Casa Labia and Foodbarn (the name of this restaurant is barely visible), with only a telephone number and address, but no review, or summary about what these restaurants stand for.\u00a0 One is not sure if they are recommended by JP or by Michael.<\/p>\n

13.\u00a0 The “Quaff Now” and “Cellar for Later” wine pages have the same problems with pack recognition and branding, but a neat label at each bottle helps one to identify each brand name.\u00a0 One wonders why this approach is not used throughout the magazine to assist one in reading the pack names, rather than using so many different\u00a0design\u00a0styles.\u00a0 An Old Mutual information block seems out of place on this page, other than to communicate that Old Mutual encourages one to drink a lot, with an inevitable outcome, requiring insurance cover!<\/p>\n

14.\u00a0\u00a0 The “Quick & Delicious” page has recipes for a week ahead, nicely presented as ‘recipe cards’.\u00a0\u00a0 But the content is blocked in part by a block asking if one has subscribed.<\/p>\n

15.\u00a0\u00a0 As stated above, the “4 Ways with Chocolate” feature is fantastic, with mouth-watering photography by Russel Wasserfall.\u00a0 One wonders why Russel does not do all the photography for Crush!<\/p>\n

16.\u00a0 By contrast to the “JamieWho?” pages, “The Foodie”‘s pages are a disappointment – “The Foodie”\u00a0does not receive the same branding and identity treatment compared to that of his friend Andy Fenner, and his pages look more messy and\u00a0unfocused.\u00a0 What is a huge surprise is that “The Foodie”\u00a0is outed as being David Cope, an identity which David has been at great pains to protect.\u00a0 David’s blog “The Foodie” does not even identify his surname!\u00a0\u00a0 David works at\u00a0a PR agency, and writes for such clients as the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School.\u00a0\u00a0 He, like Andy Fenner, likes to hang out at &Union, and one wonders if Michael’s readers\u00a0have heard of\u00a0“The Foodie”.\u00a0\u00a0 He writes about a Houseboat stay at Langebaan and has a recipe for making “Perfect Guacomole”.\u00a0 I wonder why\u00a0Michael has chosen two “man’s men” bloggers to contribute to Crush! when there are many talented (lady) food bloggers\u00a0who may have far greater credibility and be of greater interest to the readers of Crush!<\/p>\n

17.\u00a0\u00a0Crush!2 was sent out early on Friday, a bad day of the week for distributing newsletters, and getting them read.\u00a0\u00a0 This is evident by the few comments made about it on Twitter (many Twitter users read their Tweets on their phones, and Blackberry and iPhone do not support Adobe Flash required to open the magazine on their phones).\u00a0 Also, Crush! does not appear to have editorial deadlines –\u00a0Crush!1 was a month late in being launched, and this edition was published 7 weeks thereafter, not at the\u00a0beginning of a month, if it is meant to be monthly or\u00a0bi-monthly.<\/p>\n

My overall impression: the “style over substance” approach to this digital magazine\u00a0will not win it loyal readers – if only the style were good –\u00a0and that has huge potential to improve.\u00a0 Its “journalism” is light-weight,\u00a0 and as someone said to me:\u00a0“this is not an online magazine\u00a0 – it is a picturebook”!\u00a0 Harsh words, but perhaps he is right.\u00a0\u00a0Crush!2 says it is “Food & Wine with Passion” – the passion is there, but the execution is not yet!<\/p>\n

Once again, I invite Michael to comment, which I am more than happy to post.\u00a0 Read Crush!2<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday I received the second edition of Crush!, “South Africa’s finest digital food & wine magazine”, says the e-mail\u00a0providing the link.\u00a0\u00a0To make sure one knows how good it is, it promises “yet more brilliance for you in this issue” – that is if you thought that the first issue was brilliant!\u00a0\u00a0 I did not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,266,21,19],"tags":[5705,6840,5566,4505,5565,6818,6838,6826,1379,32366,6827,4663,6815,6805,32378,6802,1979,6813,1736,6803,6814,6825,6841,6808,6812,6804,6828,2645,6811,6836,6834,265,6839,4331,2688,5563,2830,4630,6835,6038,6816,2136,6875,2788,6820,6837,6819,924,6829,69,647,6809,6832,957,229,6687,6830,13,6822,6874,6806,32388,52,6824,4573,1587,6821,6807,2278,32373,4816,53,4743],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t