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29-03-2019, 07:07
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If you are at all engaged with beer social media, you will be aware that there have been rumours, or at least rumours of rumours.Though we don’t recall signing up to a code of ethics on this, there are certainly good reasons to be cagy about sharing or discussing such rumours.
First, there’s the risk of things getting a bit ‘lawyery’. We don’t know of this is a real issue, or a borrowed trouble, but who wants to find out the hard way?
Then there’s the question of people’s feelings. Imagine you’re negotiating the sale of your company but haven’t finalised the deal; there’s a non-disclosure agreement in place so you can’t tell your team anything until it’s finalised; and, anyway, you wouldn’t want to tell them in case it falls through at the last minute. Then imagine how those team members feel learning the news from Twitter, or on some poxy beer blog.
The American food reporter Farley Elliott recently described how, in the early days of his career, he would sometimes turn up at restaurants he had heard were closing down and, over-eager in making his enquiries, accidentally break the news to frontline staff that they were about to lose their jobs. He felt bad, they felt bad… There are better ways.
Finally, there’s the risk of embarrassing yourself if the rumoured takeover doesn’t happen. Rumours are just rumours, and are sometimes just lies. Five or so years ago, we heard a cast-iron rumour of a takeover that was definitely about to happen at any minute now… but didn’t.
And anyway, unless you are working for an outlet that thrives on scoops – that relies on being first with the breaking news – there’s no particular need for anyone in beer to be rushing to talk about this stuff.
The only difference a rumour makes, really, is that it allows time to mentally prepare. It can be a jolt to learn that a brewery you like has been taken over when 300 hot-take Tweets land within a minute of each other.
Given how things are, though, shouldn’t we all be mentally prepared, all the time, for any brewery of decent size and market reach to sell up? We all know how to spot the pre-eruption tremors these days (https://boakandbailey.com/2018/05/getting-in-shape-for-takeover/).
Sure, we’ll still jump when the balloon pops, but at least by now we’ve learned to discern the balloon, and to see someone standing there with pin in hand, grinning, waiting.
Anatomy of a Rumour (https://boakandbailey.com/2019/03/anatomy-of-a-rumour/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (https://boakandbailey.com)


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