Fame is fleeting ... NY Times reference to Marvin Shanken

[Robin Garr]

So it turns out that <I>Wine Spectator</I> publisher Marv Shanken is a resident in the Upper East Side building struck by Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's ill-fated plane yesterday.

Curiously, the Newspaper of Record referred to Marvin thusly: "The building is a condominium with residents like Marvin R. Shanken, the publisher of Cigar Aficionado and other specialty magazines ... "

So it turns out that <I>Wine Spectator</I> publisher Marv Shanken is a resident in the Upper East Side building struck by Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle's ill-fated plane yesterday.

Curiously, the Newspaper of Record referred to Marvin thusly: "The building is a condominium with residents like Marvin R. Shanken, the publisher of Cigar Aficionado and other specialty magazines ... "

Somebody at The Times was asleep at the wheel...or maybe not...

Google agrees, Robin. If you search on "marvin r shanken" on Google, the first few hits are:

1. Cigar Aficionado | About Marvin R. ShankenWelcome to Cigar Aficionado Online, your home on the web for cigars and The Good Life!

2. Running Press BooksMarvin R. Shanken is the chairman and owner of M. Shanken Communications, Inc., which publishes Cigar Aficionado and Wine Spectator and is based in New York ...

3. Wine Spectator | HomeMarvin R. Shanken · « Our New, Improved Web Site · Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Wine Spectator, introduces our redesign ...

4. Wine Spectator | Blogs | Marvin R. Shanken | ArchivesNews, features, tasting reports, blogs and much more from Wine Spectator Online.

I haven't looked at Cirgar Aficionado for awhile -- I know it's been profitable from the very first issue -- a remarkable fact for magazines, and one that Forbes has made much of in a couple of articles. The last issue I saw claimed circulation of over 250,000. I wonder if it is bigger than Wine Spectator.

Regards, Bob

Yeah Bob, but why would the Times give WS mention? They don't cover cigars but they do cover wine at the newspaper.

Is that what you were getting at Robin?

It fascinates me how papers put these stories together, Thomas. Here's the list: Reporting was contributed by Al Baker, Cara Buckley, Rebecca Cathcart, Damien Cave, Sewell Chan, Joe Drape, Kate Hammer, Tyler Kepner, Thomas J. Lueck, Jo Craven McGinty, Patrick McGeehan, William Neuman, Anthony Ramirez, William K. Rashbaum, Matthew Sweeney, Matthew Wald and Margot Williams. James Barron got the byline.

I don't recognize any wine writers in that group -- but I sure would like to have a glance at Shanken's draft obit to see how the Times identifies him there.

What's fascinating about the Google search results is that shankan appears to be more closely identified with cigars than with wine. That's particularly interesting if you look at the Google trends results of wine versus cigars, where wine is much more searched than cigars -- except in Rehoboth MA where cigar stories greatly outnumber wine stories.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=cigars%2Cwine

The Forbes articles indicate that Shanken is prouder of the cigar mag than Wine Spectator. He bought the Spectator and developed it with the help of others over a long period of time. The cigar magazine was all his idea, started from scratch, and was a great success from day one.

I'd love to read what Robin and other media types think about how the Times came to identify him with the cigar magazine.

Maybe it's a subtle commentary on the way they feel about WS or its reputation as a wine magazine.

Poisonally, I liked it when it was a newsletter, but then I was a lot younger then; I liked almost anything that didn't take up too much time before it gave over some gratification.

Maybe it's a subtle commentary on the way they feel about WS or its reputation as a wine magazine.

Ya mean like when I refer to it as "The Wine Dictator?"