Regular readers will notice a few new banners on the site of late. Yes, amazingly, we have found that people want to advertise here on Australian Brews News…or, as we like to think of it, support independent beer writing.

Here at Australian Brews News we are the original wolf pack of one, priding ourselves on being willing to speak our minds about all things beer. We also love beer and love the challenge of communicating beer news and commentary through the new(ish) medium of online publishing.

At the same time, putting Brews News together takes a lot of people a lot of time, and some of us would like to eat and maybe even be considered semi-professional as beer writers. So, we grapple with the need to sell ads while still maintaining our editorial independence.

It can be hard to juggle, but we are pretty proud of the independence that we maintain and believe that we are doing a good job of being about the most independent beer voice around (fire up in the discussion board below if you disagree).Beer is great, but there’s no point sitting around the camp fire singing Kum Bay Ya and pretending there aren’t also problems that need discussing in the world of beer. We cheer mostly, but sometimes we also like to point out that theemperoractually isn’t wearing any clothes. Sometimes we out-and-out throw rocks at a brewer’s windows. Sometimes we’re right, often we’re wrong – but you know what we think – and you have the right to voice your opinions uncensored (within reason) on our discussion board.

When we do sell ads, we are very clear with our advertisers that they are buying space on our site, not a lease over our opinions. While balanced in our coverage, we don’t pull our punches and our advertisers understand that. If nothing else, you have gotta respect people that will support us knowing it may come back to bite them. That speaks of the confidence they have in their beers and in their story.

We also limit ads to things that are of interest to people with an interest in beer…that’s all beer people, not just beer geeks (though there is a special place in our hearts for you guys and gals). Trust me when I say that the dollars that are exchanging hands aren’t the sort of dollars that you would sell out for, more the sort of dollars that will let the site develop, include more voices and maybe subsidise the expensive habit that comes with loving good beer.

The site started out of a love for beer and healthy beer love continues to drive us, hopefully the extra shekels will just let us do that better.

If it sounds like we’re trying to justify it, you’re right. We’re beer lovers, not creatures of commerce….we feel a little dirty, but that’s probably a good thing. It keeps us honest.

Oh, and if you’re a brewer or beer-related business interested in seeing avenues for independent beer writing flourish and believe that is good for all beer, call us now, we have operators standing by.

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