The World of Fine Spirits launches with a focus on ultra-premium coverage
Whisky Business: City PM’s monthly look at the world of whisky. Here, Alex Martin, editor of the new publication, The World of Fine Spirits, takes a look at what it takes to succeed in a tough industry.
It’s hard to know which industry is more under threat: spirits or journalism.
The former is facing a generational shift in behaviour that may cement lower alcohol consumption for decades. The latter had finally found a way to make money in the digital age, only to see its articles stripped bare by large language models.
Both industries have failed to innovate at a time of huge societal and technological change, relying on legacy branding and assumptions of continual growth to get through the next earnings call.
They are now both paying the price, with mounting job losses in both. Press Gazette has tracked thousands of jobs that have either been lost or will be lost in 2026. In Scotland, the Scotch Whisky Association estimates that over one thousand jobs were lost in 2025. More will follow, with Diageo in the midst of deep cuts.
Lost audience
So what went wrong? The spirits industry was fixated on who isn’t drinking, rather than who already is. Instead of asking what devoted drinkers wanted next, it kept casting a wider net, leaving enthusiasts disillusioned. Digital journalism made the same bet. Newsrooms drifted from storytelling toward the headline engineered to be clicked.
The business model ran on how many strangers you could flash an ad in front of. It didn’t matter if they came back. The daily reader counted for no more than the accidental visitor.
In both cases, the same asset was treated as an afterthought: the people who were already in the room.
Ascend Media’s new publication, The World of Fine Spirits, considers its regular readers its most valuable. We launched in June, 2026, intent on offering the kind of coverage spirit lovers want to read – in-depth, on-the-ground stories from and about the world’s most interesting distilleries.
As the name suggests, The World of Fine Spirits is a luxury title. We believe it is the only title in the world dedicated to the ultra-premium end of the market, but how do we define a fine spirit? Like our sister title, The World of Fine Wine, we do not look at price or prestige – we simply ask, is this a spirit worth talking about? If it is, it qualifies.
It’s an old-fashioned idea, but in both spirits and journalism, the most successful businesses are going back to basics by curating an engaged audience and taking care of them.
Our website is industry-leading in its design and function, but when we first started in September 2025, our only means of communication was an email newsletter, addressed to the reader from the author, as if in conversation. It was only supposed to be a temporary platform for our best content ahead of the official launch, but it has proven so popular that it will continue.
The World of Fine Spirits: A luxury title
In a world of infinite distractions, taking the time to subscribe, open, and read an email is a serious commitment. What we offer in return is something of genuine value: great journalism, no conditions.
We’ve invested heavily in the journalism itself, working with writers such as Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Award winners Joel Harrison and Millie Milliken.
When I set out the vision for The World of Fine Spirits to them, they invariably came back with ideas they had been sitting on for months, if not years, because no publication was willing or able to take them.
Those stories now have a home.
But as a luxury title, we are hitting an area that, at least in spirits, has been hit hardest. The cost of living has driven many away from luxury spending, and even those who are guarded against economic downturns are far more cautious.
These people – the high-net-worths – were milked by luxury brands in those hysterical post-pandemic years, and now have a sharp sense for value. If they find it, they’re still happy to spend.
The same goes for their time. And a reader that exacting is precisely the reader a community-first title is built for: someone who can’t be won by volume or a discount, only by being treated for the intelligent person they are.
Quality over quantity is also how we make money. The old model sold anonymous impressions on banners. We offer the opposite. A small audience of genuinely interested readers is worth far more to a prestige brand than a vast, indifferent one. These are the people who can afford the bottle today, not aspire to it tomorrow.
In practice, that means no standard banners. Our advertising units are bespoke, built to sit within the site’s design rather than interrupt it. We host immersive events where readers can taste liquid, learn its story, and, if they wish, join that brand’s private client list.
As part of Ascend Media, a luxury publishing house with established UHNW audiences across Spear’s, Elite Traveler, and The World of Fine Wine, we have already drawn significant numbers of connoisseurs, collectors, and the curious to our communication list. Having a brand like The Macallan as our launch partner should send a strong signal to the market.
Plenty of publications won’t survive the age of AI, and those engineered for clicks will go first. The ones that do will be those that readers choose to return to again and again. That’s the only moat left: attention and loyalty earned rather than borrowed. It comes back to the fundamental both industries forgot: look after the people already drinking, already reading.