James Bayley
James Bayley is news and website editor at the drinks business, covering the global drinks trade with fast-paced news, corporate reporting and accessible features that link wine and spirits to food and hospitality. His remit spans daily digital coverage, longer features that explore unusual corners of the drinks industry, and the publication’s newsletters and social channels. He combines a tabloid-honed instinct for clear, engaging stories with specialist knowledge of the drinks sector and its commercial realities.
Trade news and corporate coverage
Bayley’s news output focuses on how drinks companies perform, restructure and react to shifting market and regulatory pressures. He covers financial and strategic developments at major groups such as Moët Hennessy, framing Champagne and Cognac sales within wider corporate growth narratives.
His reporting on Jackson Family Wines closing a Carneros facility with redundancies shows a willingness to cover difficult business decisions and their implications for producers and staff. Articles on Stoli appointing trustees to avert liquidation highlight his attention to governance, risk and the mechanics of keeping global brands solvent and stable. Trade barriers and import tariffs are recurring topics, with his work dissecting how protectionist policies and geopolitical disputes shape the flow of wine around the world.
Across these stories, he writes in a direct, news-led format that foregrounds what has changed for companies and the trade, then anchors that change in numbers, category performance and market context.
Wine, spirits and drinking culture
Alongside corporate news, Bayley devotes substantial coverage to how wine and spirits are made, marketed and experienced by drinkers and diners. Pieces such as “What US winemakers don’t have to tell UK consumers” explore labelling rules and consumer information, translating regulatory detail into practical consequences for people buying bottles. His analysis of whether natural wine has stolen organic’s thunder examines shifting trends within premium wine, asking which stories and credentials now resonate most with drinkers.
Coverage of restaurant margins, including a report on cheaper fine wine failing to bring more diners to high-end venues, connects drinks pricing to menu strategy and the economics of hospitality. Bayley also writes about landmark reference works, such as the World Atlas of Wine’s new edition, situating books within the broader conversation about how the industry records and teaches wine.
In his profile of sommelier and consultant Sébastien Pradal on the Apple TV+ drama Drops of God, he treats wine as a narrative device and “third character”, linking vineyard culture to storytelling and television production. Features on brands such as Whispering Angel, marking its 20th vintage, show his interest in how long-running labels maintain relevance and premium positioning over time.
Across these pieces, he consistently joins production, branding and culture, showing how drinks sit at the intersection of lifestyle, gastronomy and trade.
Lists, wraps and audience formats
Bayley makes heavy use of list formats and round-ups to package industry insight in a way that is quick to scan but grounded in real trade stories.
His “db wrapped: the biggest drinks stories of 2025” consolidates a year of coverage into a single digest, highlighting the themes that mattered most to producers, retailers and hospitality. Top 10 features such as award-winning English wines for English Wine Week and spritzes to drink in summer combine tasting and recommendation with a view of which styles and categories are gaining momentum.
Other lists, including the strongest alcoholic drinks in the world and the most valuable wine and spirits heists in history, tap into curiosity and spectacle while still referencing brands, markets and supply-chain vulnerabilities. Visual formats such as “WeekInPictures: Fine wine faces the future” use photography-led storytelling to show how the fine wine world is evolving, adding texture to the straight news agenda. Seasonal pieces, including Christmas messages from the team, help position the masthead as both trade resource and community hub for people working in drinks.
Taken together, these formats show a journalist who thinks about how readers actually consume industry news, and shapes content that can serve as both briefing and browseable feature.
Editorial leadership and wider work
In his current role, Bayley oversees all online editorial content for the drinks business, shaping the rhythm of daily news, managing long-form features and running the publication’s social media presence. He is responsible for the daily newsletter and a weekly brief aimed at professional audiences, maintaining a consistent voice across channels while balancing breaking stories with deeper analysis. His author biography describes him as an experienced reporter, editor and presenter with a background in tabloid journalism, and his external profile notes work published across drinks, sport, culture and lifestyle.
Before taking on his present role, he worked as a senior reporter in the drinks trade press, adding beat experience in wine and spirits to wider newsroom skills.
He founded Attaboy!, an independent publication focused on masculinity and the men’s magazine market, indicating an interest in how gender, culture and media intersect. Bayley has been recognised within the drinks industry, winning the Alan Lodge Young International Drinks Writer of the Year 2025, an award that underscores his standing among trade peers. He also appears as a guest on specialist drinks media and podcasts, extending his reporting voice into broadcast formats.
This combination of editorial leadership, trade expertise and cross-genre experience shapes a coverage style that is both commercially literate and accessible to a broad professional audience.
4 more food journalists.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What's On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose food and leisure coverage is built around immersive, first-person reporting and concrete detail. He works at the Manchester Evening News, focusing on new restaurant and bar openings, regular food reviews, gig and event coverage, and issues affecting LGBTQ+ people. He treats restaurants, pubs, bars and experiences as stories about place, people and community, explaining what makes a venue different and how it fits into the local dining scene. His pieces cover pricing, service, atmosphere, crowds and concept, and he is willing to be critical when gimmicks undermine the experience. He writes character-led pub profiles, works shifts, joins treasure hunts and attends major cultural events, inviting readers to follow what he does and use his straightforward assessments to decide where to eat, drink and spend time.
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd
Alice Lorenzato-Lloyd is editor at Secret Manchester, where she treats food as part of how people live in the city, not as an isolated subject. She covers restaurants, bars, street food and casual dining, linking new openings and food trends to neighbourhood change, local businesses and everyday routines. Her pieces focus on accessible spots, comfort dishes like pizza and tacos, and clear details of menus, presentation, atmosphere and practical information such as opening hours and booking. She often combines food, drink and live events, producing guides to venues for major sports tournaments and themed pop-ups as part of wider things to do. Alice also reports on hospitality business pressures, city-centre public spaces, charity initiatives, transport and infrastructure, always showing how food and drink fit into community and lifestyle stories. She previously wrote for other regional “Secret” sites as a staff writer and describes herself as a writer and food fanatic.
Aly Walansky
Aly Walansky specializes in service-driven food coverage that treats cocktails and dining as tools for celebration, focusing on how logistics, ordering options, and menu choices turn everyday meals and major holidays into shared experiences. She is a longtime food and travel journalist now writing for Forbes, where her beat centers on cocktails and occasion-driven dining. Her work includes practical, expert-driven roundups such as guides to many variations on the classic martini, shipped-meals gift lists for Mother’s Day, and accessible formats for Thanksgiving and other holidays. She reports through structured lists, restaurant features, and menu-focused profiles that highlight signature dishes and dining trends. Across outlets, she extends this approach to home cooking, grocery shopping, and recipes, and runs a newsletter that shares her current assignments and industry commentary.
Amy Clarke
Amy Clarke stands out for turning food trends, sustainability and rising costs into practical guidance. She writes about changing tastes, new ingredients, formats and dining habits, as well as budget-friendly sustainable eating, nutrition, food shopping and the pressures extreme weather places on small food businesses. Her work includes forward-looking trend round-ups, advice on eating sustainably on a budget, cheaper alternatives to expensive superfoods and a report on how ice cream vans manage heat, logistics and profitability. She works as a multimedia reporter for News Shopper Series, with past work published in Sutton & Croydon Guardian, Yahoo News UK and The Conversation. Clarke combines reported features with clear explainers, expert voices and step-by-step advice. She uses plain language, specific examples and practical tips to show what food changes mean for readers and businesses.