Why I’ve put part of matchingfoodandwine.com behind a paywall

Those of you who consult matchingfoodandwine.com regularly may have noticed I have put the Top Pairings section of the site behind a paywall.

You may wonder why after all this time. After all the site has been free to use since I first set it up back in 2006.

At that time it wasn’t common to charge for online content - Jancis Robinson was one of the only writers who did - and then, working for the Guardian, I felt it was all part of the service.

But in many ways it’s been a victim of its own success. Loads of people were using it and not paying for it - something I didn’t mind in the case of private individuals but found slightly galling in the case of large companies. But hell, why wouldn’t they? I wasn’t asking them for money despite offering them over 18 years of expertise!

So, having left the Guardian in the summer, I finally decided to put the key Top Pairings section behind a paywall which you can access by buying a bundle of credits, a model those of you who subscribe to photographic libraries will be familiar with. Or think a ‘carnet’ of Paris metro tickets if you aren’t.

You can either buy them as a monthly or annual subscription where they get automatically topped up or a on one-off basis. 

One credit buys you access to one article so it’s basically pay-as-you-go. You can get an idea of what the article is about from the first couple of paragraphs.

Once you’ve paid for an article you have permanent access to it and there’s no time limit by which the credits have to be used.

Many sections of the site still remain free - the regularly updated Match of the Week slot and Recipes, Entertaining, Wine Basics and Food & Wine Pros among them so there’s plenty to browse.

But if you’d like to access the key recommendations here’s how to go about it;

How to buy a bundle of credits

It’s actually really simple.

Head for the Purchase Credits page and sign up or sign in, choose from the credit packs and you’ll then be able enter your payment details.

(Prices start at £6 ($7.82/7.20€*) for a one-off bundle of 10 credits i.e. 60p (78 cents /.72€*) an article or you could take out an annual membership for £55 (/$71.76/66€*) which would give you 120 credits which works out at only 46p (60 cents/.55€) an article. There is a range of other options.

If you’re a business and would like to set up access for more than one member of your team you can take out a corporate subscription. Only one person needs to sign up but you can then add the email addresses of up to four other colleagues to give them access to the content. If they sign in with that email and hit “forgotten password” they can set up their own password.

Here’s the link you need again

* at the current rate of exchange 20/10/24

If you’d like be able to check out all the food and wine pairings on the site you can buy a bundle of credits here to access my premium content.

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