Jay Weston's newsletter sings the blues: A vestige of the past?

EatingLA rarely links to Nikki Finke, but we'll make a New Year's exception to point out her rather strange appeal for restaurants to advertise in veteran producer/restaurant writer Jay Weston's newsletter. Jay is a sweet guy who is certainly well-informed about L.A. restaurants, mostly of the upscale Westside variety. And there's a segment of old Hollywood who still reads his newsletter religiously, mostly because they don't know how to get on the Internet. But let's not kid ourselves -- he's not a reviewer -- most all the articles are about how he was lavishly wined and dined by the management -- and there's all kinds of strange advertorial content about mineral water and other advertisers. The newsletter was useful 25 years ago to inform readers about new restaurants, but it doesn't make any sense for Finke to constantly carp that some journalists should lose their livelihoods while simultaneously promoting dinosaurs of print media. Good luck Jay, but maybe it's time for a different business model.