It has become trendy in recent years for professional reporters and (shudder) “content creators” alike to describe themselves as “independent” media. Like “craft” beer, “grain-to-glass” spirits, or “natural” wine, “independent” has become a marketing term for people who post stuff online and want to get paid for it. I can’t speak for anybody else, but here’s what I mean when I call Fingers an “independent” newsletter:
I publish stories that I think are important and interesting.
I center workers and drinkers in my coverage, rather than bosses and brands.
I write what I think, because “objective” journalism is a myth and you deserve to know where I stand.
I don’t accept money, samples, access, or press trips in exchange for coverage.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this isn’t the easiest way to make a living in 2024, given, y’know, *gestures out into the abyss.* And yet: this project recently turned two years old as a going business concern.1 It is modestly profitable, and I’m immodestly proud of that. If you’re a paying Friend of Fingers, you should be too, because your subscription fees have solely and directly funded my independent journalism about drinking in America in the face of an ongoing media collapse. We did it, folks!
If you’re not a paying Friend of Fingers yet, please consider upgrading. To celebrate Fingers’ second Going Paid-iversary, I’m doing a subscription drive for the next week. Don’t miss it.
As a special bonus, the first 10 new customers to buy subscriptions via this sale will receive a sticker pack with a special holographic Fingers wordmark sticker. I’ve got another 15 for the first 15 paid subscribers who fill out this form. Good luck!
Per custom on these momentous occasions, I’ve broken out some sales and audience figures—“key performance indicators,” if you will; I will not—in more detail in the State of the Boozeletter™️ section below for those paying Friends of Fingers curious enough to see how the sausage gets made and the sausage-maker (me) gets paid. The upshot is that Fingers is a rewarding but difficult way to make a little less than half the income I was making at my last salaried job in media, which scans with the decline of the media industry writ large since I left that job in 2018. There are easier ways to earn a buck, and I’d be lying if I claimed to be content with the number bucks I’m earning, but nobody promised a cakewalk. Gotta keep pushing. Speaking of which:
Before I quit navel-gazing, I want to spell out why I believe Fingers’ independence is so important. Reporting on the booze business doesn’t pay particularly well, but there is a nearly endless stream of payola for those writers on the take, from free beer all the way up to all-expenses-paid junkets to international distilleries, and beyond.
I’m not entirely pure, obviously, and my stance on this has hardened against this over my decade and a half on the job. These days, I occasionally receive free beer by mail,2 and I very-occasionally (like, once every five years, ish?) take a junket if I feel like good, boots-on-the-ground reporting can come of it that I wouldn’t be able to afford to do otherwise.3 I disclose those choices so you’re aware of them and able to evaluate for yourself whether they influence my coverage.
Disclosure is a low ethical bar, and it’s one that some writers—especially “independent” ones, without an editor looking over their shoulder—routinely fail to clear. Ditto, the even lower bar of “don’t ask for free shit and promise coverage in return.” #NotAllDrinksJournalists, of course, but it’s definitely a thing, and it doesn’t reflect well on my chosen profession.
This happens throughout the industry to varying degrees, but it particularly annoys me when writers who claim to be “independent” eschew these basic transparency standards for their own benefit, because cozying up to brands is the opposite of that. At that point, however independent they are of the strictures of the mAiNsTrEaM mEdIa, they’re compromised by corporate interests, bamboozling their readers about it, and eroding trust in drinks journalism across the board. It sucks! Fingers will never do that.
If you want more adversarial reportage about the business and culture of booze, and you haven’t bought a subscription yet, please give Fingers a shot. I break real news, I don’t give a shit about “brand friendliness,” and I disclose conflicts of interest when they arise. I could probably make more money if I didn’t, but I believe independence is worth it. I hope you do, too.
For the nearly 600 (!!!) paying Friends of Fingers who have already ponied up to support this work, thank you. If you’re feeling extra supportive, forward this email to your friends and tell them to buy a subscription, or just buy ‘em a gift subscription yourself. Word-of-mouth matters, man, and every subscription counts!
Thanks for sticking with me through the past 800 words, and the past two years. As ever, if you’ve got news tips, comments, concerns, etc., email me anytime at dave@dinfontay.com. I’d love to hear from you. Onward and upward, Fingers Fam—independently, of course.
📬 Good post alert
If you see a good post that the Fingers Fam should know about, please send me that good post via email or Instagram DM.
🎧 The Beer Byliners are back, bay-bee
In a bold gambit to make sure the Taplines podcast feed was stocked with fresh episodes while your fearless Fingers was off galavanting in Germany, we put the show’s normal format on the shelf for this reunion episode of sorts with journalists Kate Bernot of Sightlines, and Jess Infante of Brewbound. Some of you may know the three of us as the Beer Byliners, the name of a recurring Twitter Space that we hosted during the first year of the pandemic. (Ah, how young we were.)
On this special-edition pod, we got the gang back together to discuss their favorite respective moments in modern American beer history. Tune in for a freewheeling conversation about the unveiling of the Brewers Association’s Ozymandian “20% by 2020” mantra, the dark side of Cleveland’s infamous, Stroh's-fueled “10-cent beer night” catastrophe, and much more.
Check out the video above if you like to watch your podcasts, or find it on your preferred platform here. Don’t forget to subscribe so new episodes show up directly in your feed!
📈 The State of the Boozeletter™️
Hello to all the newsletter nerds, media frenemies, and #datadriven #entrepreneurs who are keen to see some hard numbers on Fingers’ performance. Total audience, paid audience, and additional projected gross all grew by double-digit percentages year-over-year through 9/22/24. Some top-line figures: