In these truly bizarre times in which we find ourselves, now more than ever we need media to keep us informed, entertained, distracted, and heard as readers. We here at Sprudge have been doing our best to provide you high quality daily coverage that meets these criteria, and we thank you deeply for tuning in with us over the last few weeks.
But media right now, specifically coffee media, finds itself with a new charge: supporting the communities that have supported them over the years, particularly for impacted cafe owners and coffee workers. In the world of coffee print media we’ve been contacted about several initiatives—everything from discounted and extended subscriptions, to donated subscription fees, to innovative community-focused contests and giveaways—all of it meant to support the wider health of the coffee industry.
Today we’re rounding up some of the best efforts by our colleagues in coffee media, focused on print magazines. If you believe in coffee journalism, now would be a good time to show your support.
Caffeine Magazine
“The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown has had a profound impact on baristas and coffee professionals in the UK and worldwide. Caffeine is trying to do everything we can to support our friends and colleagues at this time. We felt that the coffee industry should be doing more and our industry bodies should not be waiting to act.” — Scott Bentley, Founder of Caffeine Magazine
The UK’s Caffeine Magazine is going straight to the source with their initiative. Teaming up with United Baristas, Caffeine is creating Barista Care Packs. Each pack includes coffee, Oatly oat milk, Mr. Black coffee liqueur, London Coffee Festival tickets, vegetarian-friendly groceries and preserves, chocolates and treats, and an all-important roll of toilet paper. “Through leveraging our combined networks we have secured enough money to distribute over 250 care packs to furloughed baristas and coffee professionals. And we hope to be able to distribute many many more in the coming weeks,” Bentley states.
“We want baristas and coffee professionals to know that the coffee industry cares for them,” says United Baristas Founder Tim Ridley. “Care Packs have been designed to provide practical support to those baristas facing hardship and emotional support to all.”
UK coffee professionals can register to receive a Barista Care Pack here. If you’d like to assist in their efforts, head over to the Barista Care website and bid on a donated item at one of their twice-weekly auctions. Or if you are a coffee company that wants to help, Caffeine is “actively seeking further donations to fund more Care Packs.”
Imbibe Magazine
The beverage polymaths over at Imbibe Magazine are doing their part to help out the entirety of the service industry, including coffee professionals. For all of April, Imbibe will be donating $5 from every new subscription to the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation (featured here on Sprudge) as well as coming out of pocket with a 100% match of all donations raised.
“Members of the hospitality industry make up a big part of our audience, so we really wanted to give back to an organization that we know is directly helping this community,” Imbibe founder Karen Foley tells Sprudge. “RWCF is one of our Negroni Week charity partners, so we’re especially happy to be able to support the incredible work they’re doing right now.”
Barista Magazine
“First and foremost, we at Barista Magazine are concerned about the health and well-being of our community. As our readers are on the frontlines of service work, constantly interacting with customers, we know that they have to take care to avoid infection and exposure to themselves, their co-workers, and their customers, adding extra strain to an already stressful time. Of course many other members of the community have been forced out of their jobs as cafes and coffeeshops have closed either via government mandate or economic concern. Hopefully these furloughs are temporary and everyone can get back to work sometime in the future. But in the meantime, the economic hardship our readers will have to overcome is extraordinary, and national and local governments around the globe must support them in the time of crisis.” — Ken Olson, Publisher at Barista Magazine
The folks over at Barista Magazine have put a few cool initiatives in place right now. On top of automatically extending current BMag subscribers (as of March 17th) an additional six months as well as cutting subscription fees in half for new subscribers, they have incentivized donation with their “Give Some Get Some” contest. In this recurring social media driven effort, a donation to any of the many virtual tip jars gets you entered into a contest to win some pretty cool prizes; the winner of the first contest took home a Puqpress Q2 donated by Puqpress. All you have to do to enter is give as little as $5 to a virtual tip jar, food bank, or health/medical organization of your choosing and send a screenshot confirming as much to giveget@baristamagazine.com.
Roast Magazine
“As a long standing member of the coffee community, we want to do as much as we can to keep folks positive and looking forward to the future. The are trying times but they will pass and we’ll be stronger if we get there together!” — Connie Blumhardt, Founder of Roast Magazine
Similar to the efforts of Barista Magazine, Roast will be automatically extending subscribers at no charge as well as making all their digital back issues free of charge. Additionally, they are offering $15 off new annual subscriptions using the code “STAYHOME”.
Standart
Standart, your coffee and print lover’s favorite periodical (and winner of the 2019 Sprudgie Award for Best Magazine), is running a program where new half the cost of new subscriptions go directly to coffee shops, and the coolest part is, the subscriber gets to decide which coffee shop benefits. Called the Give & Get program, the two-week program—though it will most likely go longer, per Standart Founder Michal Molcan—allows new subscribers to pick any cafe in the world to receive their €20 part of an annual sub. To have your favorite coffee shop benefit, all you have to do before subscribing is get them to sign up here. Once they join the ranks of the 100 other coffee shops spread across 30 countries that are registered, use the cafe’s unique referral code when subscribing and they will receive half their half of the subscription fees.
“The Give and Get program is not here to *save* coffee shops, raise donations, or ask people to help just for good will. They run a capable business, same as we do, that are going through a tough period of their existence,” Molcan tells Sprudge. “It’s simply a profit-sharing initiative that supports both coffee shops and us, all while giving a great value to readers. It’s a win-win-win. Also, it’s global and super inclusive. Any coffee shop can sign up and start getting commissions. The program is hassle free and easy to join.” —Michal Molcan, founder of Standart.
Update:
Coffee People Zine
We could all use a little bonus reading right about now, don’t you think? That’s why Coffee People Zine is offering a pretty stellar deal on zine two-packs. For just $19, you can get two editions of Coffee People, saving you $11 off the regular price of two.
“So many baristas and coffee pros are stuck at home and out of work right. And we’re ALL spending too much time on our screens. To provide an alternative to the endless scroll, and to bring some positivity and artistry into the homes of those sheltered in place, I’m offering HUGE discounts on multiple zine orders. I’ve curated a collection of 2-zine packs for $19, rather than the usual $30, so you and your household will have hours of offline entertainment.” — Kat Melheim, Founder of Coffee People Zine
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
