Happy Cyber Monday everyone! You all know the story of today.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, became a traditional day of shopping frenzy in the U.S. Some will tell you the day got its name because it’s the first day that businesses went into the black for the year. Others will tell you the day’s name comes from the dark soul of American consumerism.

Small Business Saturday subsequently sprang up to encourage people to support little box stores. Traditionally, it’s the big box ones that belch in Black Friday profits, leaving the little guy in the lurch.

Cyber Monday, meanwhile, started in 2005 in an attempt by the National Retail Federation to popularize on-line shopping. You remember those days, right? Let me take you back.

This was shortly after Al Gore invented the Internet. Mariah Carey ruled the charts with ‘We Belong Together.’ It was before everybody bought everything on-line, so they needed to be encouraged to do so.

It was not long after Sandra Bullock starred in a movie called The Net because that’s what cool kids called the internet. Sometimes they even called it the World Wide Web or just ‘the web’ for short. (Yes my Millennial and Gen Z friends, that’s what ‘www’ stands for at the beginning of URLs. No bullshit.) This was so far back that ‘cyber’ sounded cool! It sounded New Millennium. Cyber sales!

Flash forward to today, and here we are. Cyber Monday, 2023.

As many of you know, last June, I announced that, going forward, Northwest Wine Report would be partially subscription-based. At that time, I paywalled wine reviews and a searchable database of reviews. I noted that my intent was to keep most of the writing content freely available to allow as many people as possible to read about the goings on in the Pacific Northwest and to help give producers and regions more exposure. My hope has been that enough people would subscribe to make that possible while still making this site financially viable.

In the interests of transparency, there are several thresholds I need to meet for this site to continue beyond the short-term. The first is to make at least as much money here as I could working a minimum wage job. I work on this site full-time. It is my main source of income.

The second is more simple: to not lose money. This site is currently my main source of income. I love what I do, but I can’t afford to lose money doing it.

The third, somewhat lofty, threshold is to make enough money that the site is sustainable. This would be a move away from the hunter/gatherer existence I’ve lived the last 14 years writing about wine full-time. (I was going to rebrand this site Sullivan’s Last Stand, but as I recall, Custer lost that battle.)

At present, while we’re inching ever closer, the site has not met any of the thresholds I’ve listed.

Many people have subscribed. To those of you who have, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am sincerely grateful and truly could not be doing what I am doing without you. You are personally saving me from going back to the corporate world, rambling to anyone who will listen about Northwest wine.

To those of you who have not yet subscribed, I need you to do so for me to be able to continue writing on this site. This site currently only has 80% of the minimum number of subscribers it needs.

So on this Cyber Monday, I say to you, if you find value here, whether it’s in the reviews, the review database, or any of the writing, please subscribe if you have not already. Become part of the few, the proud, the tiny sliver of people who pay for on-line writing. It is truly the only way that this site will continue to exist beyond the short-term.

In the spirit of Cyber Monday, I am offering $10 off annual subscriptions (Consumer, Commercial, and Enterprise). Note that this discount is only available for annual subscriptions. It also only applies to the first year of the subscription. I don’t intend to offer any other discounts in the future, so if you’ve been planning to subscribe, now is the time! (Actually, it was five months ago, but hey, I’m trying to give you a prompt.)

To redeem this offer, click on “Have a Coupon?” on the subscription sign-up page and enter the code CYBERMONDAY. You will see subsequently see the discount listed. This code will be valid until the end of the day Friday December 1^st, so make haste!

To those of you who have already subscribed, again, thank you. Here are three things you can do to further help this site:

1. Encourage your friends who you think might be interested to subscribe.

2. Share content from this site to your social media feed.

3. Like and share content from this site’s social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Threads).

As always, thank you for reading, and thank you for your support!

Northwest Wine Report is wholly subscriber funded. The site currently has 80% of the minimum number of paid subscribers needed to continue publication. Please subscribe to support continued independent content and reviews on this site.

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