{"id":9969,"date":"2010-07-08T10:33:01","date_gmt":"2010-07-08T08:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=9969"},"modified":"2011-03-17T14:59:07","modified_gmt":"2011-03-17T12:59:07","slug":"no-crush-yet-on-new-crush-online-food-and-wine-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/no-crush-yet-on-new-crush-online-food-and-wine-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"No crush yet on new Crush! online food and wine magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>South Africa’s first digital food and wine magazine Crush!<\/strong>\u00a0was launched last Friday, a long-awaited\u00a0online publication under the editorship of respected food and wine guru Michael Olivier.<\/p>\n

Olivier studied at the Cordon Bleue Cookery School\u00a0in London, has done PR for the Lanzerac Hotel, has owned restaurants (Paddagang, Burgundy and Parks), has been a wine consultant to Pick ‘n Pay, has published books (including one called ‘Crush! 100 wines to drink now’), and\u00a0presents wine programmes on Classic FM<\/strong> and on FMR<\/strong> radio stations.\u00a0 He announced the launch of Crush!<\/strong> at the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting in May, with an original launch date of 3 June.\u00a0\u00a0The actual publication date was a month later.<\/p>\n

Digital magazines have been\u00a0published in the United Kingdom for a number of years already, but have not made it into South Africa until now due to the lack of ample broadband capacity.\u00a0\u00a0 Crush! <\/strong>is published with software bought from Redonline, a British company which publishes GQ, Tesco, FHM <\/strong>and many other digital titles.\u00a0 It is available for free to what is projected will be just under 1 million readers, and its production is funded by advertising, sponsorships and product placements.\u00a0 The advertising rates seem reasonable, at a discounted R 7548 for a double page spread for the first three issues.<\/p>\n

For me\u00a0Crush!<\/strong>\u00a0is a let-down, not only technically, in navigating the 26 pages of the digital magazine, but also in terms of its content:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 Its size is smaller than the full screen size, giving the impression of an A5 magazine, something one takes less seriously than an A4 size.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 One has to click to the top right hand corner of the right page to turn the pages – it will take some time for one to get used to doing this expertly, without feeling silly in turning the pages efficiently (luckily I saw a “fools’ guide” to turning the pages at the top left, which shows arrows to\u00a0the right and to the left).<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 The cover of a magazine is what sells it – I found Crush!’s\u00a0<\/strong>cover to be unattractive and far too busy, with all\u00a0sorts of electronic “nick-nacks” to attract one’s attention, seriously lacking a good design hand.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 I missed an “Ed’s letter”, in which Michael should explain what Crush!<\/strong> stands for, remind readers of his background and strengths, and detail who is in his editorial and production team.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Michael does talk on a YouTube video on the third page, but unfortunately the “play” button is on top of his\u00a0face, a design problem that can easily be addressed.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0\u00a0Crush! <\/strong>has little advertising, but needs advertising support to finance the venture and to pay the royalties to Redonline.\u00a0 The Pepenero\/Paranga\/Kove\/Zenzero group, Pick ‘n Pay, Old Mutual,\u00a0Constantia Glen\u00a0and Pongracz are direct advertisers.\u00a0\u00a0 I liked the more subtle advertorial feel of the Arabella wines page.\u00a0\u00a0 The double page spread on Warwick is the most attractive of all pages in Crush!, <\/strong>in my opinion, and while I am sure that it is paid-for advertorial, it is the “cleanest” page, with the\u00a0fewest “gimmicks” and pop-ups of all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Given the cost of setting up such a venture, one wonders if it is Pick ‘n Pay financing the venture, given Olivier’s relationship with them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0\u00a0 Having been earmarked\u00a0for launch more than a month ago, most of the copy probably was written at that time.\u00a0 The danger with\u00a0a delay is that the information gets dated, and the page written by JP Rossouw is dated in two respects – JP Rossouw’s image has been seriously dented by\u00a0the reaction to his La Mouette review (read here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>).\u00a0\u00a0Olivier would have done better to write the\u00a0page himself.\u00a0\u00a0 Secondly, Rossouw chose to focus on La Colombe,\u00a0and Luke Dale-Roberts, just 2 days after the La Colombe chef announced that he is no longer the Executive Chef of the San Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurant in the World restaurant!\u00a0 Ironically, it was Rossouw that alerted the industry to this news, but the information about Luke Dale-Roberts’ relationship with La Colombe was not updated in the two days before launching the publication.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that Rossouw’s Restaurants <\/strong>book is offered for sale on the page commercialises the page and reduces its credibility even further.\u00a0 When entering the La Colombe competition, I lost the link to the page I was on, and had to go back to the Homepage, and run through all the pages again.\u00a0\u00a0 In the running link it mentions, amongst others, that JP Rossouw has reviewed La Colombe, but there is no review!\u00a0\u00a0The next issue of Crush!<\/strong> is to feature a review of a Johannesburg restaurant – while I understand that Crush! <\/strong>is a national publication, reviews about restaurants in other areas have little interest for Cape Town readers, a weakness Rossouw faces with his on-line reviews too.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0\u00a0 Alongside a recipe for Salmon Fishcakes, as well as on the “High Five” wine page, the labels of the bottles of the wine options suggested are unreadable.\u00a0 One is encouraged to\u00a0click onto each bottle to “roll it over”, but it only pops up with information about that particular wine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0\u00a0 A profile of Chef Liam Tomlin of the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School is disappointing, in that little information is provided on the page, which mainly is filled with a photograph of Tomlin.\u00a0 If one clicks on a\u00a0small “interview” button, Tomlin’s answers to a set of questions are provided, hardly giving one a feel for the character and personality of Tomlin, nor of his background.\u00a0<\/p>\n

11.\u00a0\u00a0 Every page has a running script at the top, a little like on SkyNews<\/strong> and other news television stations,\u00a0distracting one’s attention from the main body of the page.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0 The “back’ page refers to an Uwe Koetter competition, and it is not immediately clear that one does not have to do anything to stand a chance to win jewellery.<\/p>\n

In general I found Crush! <\/strong>to be too superficial in that it lacks depth; it is too “thin” in terms of number of pages compared to a regular magazine; it is too hard-sell in encouraging one to buy wines via ‘Crush Cellar’ which takes one to Grapefuel, travel (never heard of\u00a0Pick ‘n Pay\u00a0having a travel agency), and Rossouw’s book; and it is too “busy” in terms of pop-ups, running messages and buttons one has to click to read further information.\u00a0\u00a0Ultimately, a digital magazine cannot compete with a glossy printed one.\u00a0 It cannot be kept for future reference, it cannot be displayed on a coffee table, one cannot tear a page out of\u00a0it, and it does not offer 100 pages or so of reading joy in bed, which a magazine can do.<\/p>\n

To read Crush!<\/strong>, click here<\/span><\/strong>.<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter: @Crush_online<\/p>\n

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

South Africa’s first digital food and wine magazine Crush!\u00a0was launched last Friday, a long-awaited\u00a0online publication under the editorship of respected food and wine guru Michael Olivier. Olivier studied at the Cordon Bleue Cookery School\u00a0in London, has done PR for the Lanzerac Hotel, has owned restaurants (Paddagang, Burgundy and Parks), has been a wine consultant to […]<\/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":[4814,5559,568,5566,5565,1285,4797,4663,32378,4813,5564,4810,5560,4808,6813,5550,5554,5561,5551,8151,2125,5556,5552,4571,1388,2688,5563,39,4630,4670,555,2788,924,5060,4668,69,4669,647,957,229,2785,5558,5555,1358,5567,32388,5557,967,4573,5503,1120,3598,32373,5562,4743],"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