I know a bit about the beer/brewing industry in New Zealand. Some of the facts I see reported makes me have to question not only the reporting on my industry but absolutely everything else I read in the media. It would seem that today journalists write articles from press releases, and take what they hear from people they interview as factually correct, with absolutely no background research on the topic.
Kind of makes me want to put a challenge out to everyone that can get quoted in the media to see who can exaggerate the truth the most, and see if you can get it printed.
The unsuspecting public read this information and take it as the truth.
So far this week:
Beer festival pulls in brewers by Grant Bryant – The Southland Times
“….Leigh Hart , who runs the Wakachangi brewery.”
Where is the Wakachangi brewery?
What does Leigh actually do in “running” the brewery?
(my understanding is his label is contract brewed at Harringtons)
Small brewery making big impact by Caitlin Sykes – NZ Herald
“…the biggest beer competition in the world….. the Australian International Beer Awards…”
In 2013, the Australian International Beer Awards attracted a record 1,480 entries.
In 2012, the World Beer Cup had 3921 entries
In 2013 the Great American Beer Festival had 4,809 beers entered in the competition.
So AIBA is NOT the biggest beer competition in the world.
Small Business: Craft brewers – Craig Bowen, BeerNZ by Caitlin Sykes – NZ Herald
“…but the craft category, which makes up around 5% of that total number, is growing about 20% a year.”
These figures are supported by what?
Is the 20% p.a. growth the figure BeerNZ is experiencing?
Is the information from scan data from supermarkets?
Or is it a figure that has been plucked from the air?
Bringing me back to this golden oldie:
Welcome to the craft beer capital by Joseph Romanos – The Wellingtonian
“…but estimated that Wellingtonians drank up to 40 per cent of the craft beer produced in New Zealand…”
or is there some supporting data for this massive figure?
Do you believe everything you read?
- Allan Rodgers Or deliberately write factually incorrect articles purely to drive traffic
- Dave Selby · Friends with Hamish Ferguson and 1 otherPity you can’t tag articles with [citation needed] like you can Wikipedia.
- Dave Rouse Mate you should read their air crash reports!!! “Glider bursts into flaming wreck, killing pilot”. Um… There’s no fuel or engine on board a glider…. What caught fire? Etc etc. It’s hilarious.
- Bruce Grayson Nothing’s changed under the sun.
- Jonathan Galuszka In all likelihood, the reporter was told the “fact” but failed to either research it themselves OR ask the person they’re interviewing “and how do you know that’s true?”.
Also, how does trying to get false facts/lies in stories fix the problem? If something is wrong, get in touch with the paper’s editor. They would love to know if their reporters are doing a half-arse job.
- Craig Cooper Good on you for calling it out Luke, at possibly some risk to yourself from sensitive journalists. I also read the article quoting 20% growth in craft beer and wondered where that stat came from?; Grocery channel data as reported by Aztec shows craft beer growth in the 30-50% range depending whether you’re looking at MAT or quarter etc, and like all data it depends on the segment/period you’re measuring? There is a real lack of insight to broad market data in the craft beer market, and it’s only natural journalists or market commentators want to report quantifiable numbers. But they should be qualified and what’s the source/measurement segment. Individual brewers will know their growth, but obviously reluctant to share with the public/competition for commercial reasons. To be balanced it’s not just (some) jounalists who report inaccurate or non-factual information, they’re getting quotes and official comments from industry bodies, brewers and suppliers who also should sharpen facts and minimise/remove self-interest.
- Andrew Luxmoore Fair point. This is a result of the shrinking news room and journalists who no longer have the time and resources to thoroughly background a topic.
When interviewing, much of the content will be taken at face value and accepted, though this is nothing new in the world of journalism. Unfortunately it’s just one of those things when a journalist is being asked to act as a jack of all trades.
…See More - Jonathan Galuszka As a journalist, I don’t accept that they didn’t have time to ask one question or spend 10 minutes searching online for the info. It’s just plain lazy.
- Andrew Luxmoore Fair call, and I certainly agree with you that many journalists could benefit greatly from delving further into topics to make sure they are reporting fact rather than opinion or distorted truths.
As a PR consultant, I pitch articles with factual information and statistics on a daily basis and, for the most part, journalists don’t tend to bother corroborating the facts or asking us to substantiate them further. There are the odd few who will, but they are in the minority. During pitch calls, time is of the essence – they want the story, they want it filed quickly and they want to move on to the next thing.
- Luke Nicholas This took me less than 5 minutes to come up with
“…the biggest beer competition in the world….. the Australian International Beer Awards…”
In 2013, the Australian International Beer Awards attracted a record 1,480 entries.
In 2012, the World Beer Cup had 3921 entries
In 2013 the Great American Beer Festival had 4,809 beers entered in the competition.So AIBA is NOT the biggest beer competition in the world.
- Jonathan Galuszka Exactly my point Luke; if it took you less than five minutes to find those stats, why couldn’t a journo do it?
Heck, we’re on social media while at work enough.
- LaFemme de Beer The weird thing is that i believe whatever i read unless it pertains to beer and the brewing industry where I have some knowledge, then i realize how ‘off’ the journalists, writers, bloggers, reporters are. Scary. I know this…and I still accept ‘news’ on all other topics. Create a beer that will only allow us to accept the truth in all things, Luke. :0)
- Lou Draper Ask someone who knows? Like yourself? If you want to be the one that comments on beer stories; the one journalists come to for a qualified opinion, you need to put your hand up. Contact the writers that are upsetting you and offer to help them. Win win, yes?
- Paul Croucher Ooops. I have to take some responsibility for part of this. I thought that the AIBA was the biggest beer competition in the world. You (Luke) were quite right and my limited research tells me it is the second biggest in the world. I have apologised to Caitlin and the Herald is going to address the mistake. Sorry to have been part of working you up into such a lather.
- Luke Nicholas careful with the second biggest statement too… (maybe third?)
In 2013, the Australian International Beer Awards attracted a record 1,480 entries.
In 2012, the World Beer Cup had 3921 entries.
In 2013 the Great American Beer Festival had 4,809 beers entered in the competition. - Kieran Haslett-Moore I think the argument normally goes the AIBA is the largest Annual Internation Beer Comp on earth. WBC is biannual, GABF isnt international. The extra words easily get forgotten.
- Luke Nicholas pretty weak argument, when talking about the “biggest”. so what if GABF isn’t international 4809 entries is bigger than 1480 for AIBA
- Kieran Haslett-Moore I’m not saying it makes that statement true. Just that the statement Biggest Annual International Beer Comp is true and is the cause of the chinese whisper confusion.
- Craig Bowen The 20% figure was sourced from a recent Lion published article. Lion I would think would have as good an idea as anyone on the market stats in NZ.http://lionco.com/…/getting-more-and-more-crafty-with…/Yes, true g…See More
lionco.com
As the Emerson’s slogan goes, New Zealanders increasingly like to “Drink a littl…See more - Craig Cooper Thanks Craig or identifying the source; it puts it in perspective. I doubt Lion have any more access to independent craft brewers numbers than you as Chairman of BGNZ do. Agree, it would be helpful to have more detailed numbers from Brewers, and the po…See More
- Stu McKinlay The herald thing with Craig Bowen and Croucher’s was very clearly a Q&A, not an article by a journalist. I think you all need to ask yourself what is news, what is journalism and what is an interview. They’re all quite different things.
And totally ag
…See More - Hugh Grierson I doubt Lion or DB get any information from independent beer shops or bars, because we don’t want to talk to them. But all the breweries running out of (some of their) beers this summer must mean something…
- Winston Aldworth Gidday Luke Nicholas. As a journo and a craft beer drinker, I’ve got to make a couple of points here. 1.) With one exception (the Wakachangi brewery), the examples you give are direct speech (in the form of the Q&As) and a clearly attributed reference …See More