“Now Shipping” articles have always been a puzzler for Cigar Coop. As the editor and curator of content of this site, I’ve never been quite sure how useful they are. Recently there has been one “Now Shipping” article that has come under scrutiny on Cigar Coop. This involved the shipping of the Fuente y Padrón collaboration from the factory. The controversy was that some say the report should not have even been made because it was not shipped from the warehouse. In the case of Fuente y Padrón, this came to light when the actual delivery to retailers was delayed unttil 2024 due to damage that happened to the container in process.  I personally expected some level of debate and criticism for a decision to report shipping from the factory. What I didn’t expect was our brand being attacked for how we reported the story.

Let me be very clear here. Not only do I stand behind the story that I wrote, but I’m proud of the way it was written. Given the same circumstances again, I would do exactly what was done.

When the reports of the container getting damaged were published, a public comment was made that implied the story was only newsworthy because what was reported was “news and innuendo – everyone ran news articles because there was a Facebook post about it, there wasn’t a press release.” This wasn’t the only comment, but it was a public one.  It is unfortunate that this was said, but it’s also a good chance to explain how things work at Cigar Coop.

In terms of the philosophy of how we do news, we implement three policies.

1. Direct Sourcing: This does not always involve a press release, but we always will make sure it is sourced correctly. With a press release, I make sure it comes from an authorized person. I also make sure that we don’t get it second hand. There are plenty of cases we don’t have a press release, and this Fuente y Padrón story was one of them. In this case, there were direct conversations with Carlito Fuente, and this was noted in the report.
2. Validated: Press release or not, there is a process on how things are validated. Many times, we aren’t first to report, but certainly if there is something we have questions about, we ask the questions. In the case of the Fuente y Padrón story there was no press release, the questions were asked on who was getting them, pricing, when they arrive. The answers were not available, and this was documented in my report.
3. Our Own Words: When we write something, the idea is to not cut and paste content. We will re-use a direct quote either in a press release or through a conversation.

In terms of a Facebook post, we were unaware of one. This story was reported in a conversation with Carlito Fuente. I did discover an instagram post after the Cigar Coop article was published. Sometimes, we will use a social media post for the basis of the article – and we try to implement the three principles above. If we can’t, we document them. In the case of Fuente y Padrón, this wasn’t the case. We had more details in our article for sure. Make no bones about it – when our story came out, it was the headline of the week.

Like many cigar enthusiasts, I was quite disappointed when I heard about the damaged products. I feel for the Padrón and Fuente families and their employees.  However, I am proud of how we reported the initial story of the product leaving the factory. I feel we informed people of the status of the project, we did our homework in obtaining the facts, and made no promises. Most importantly, we held to our core values and principles. I also thank Carlito Fuente for his support and aid in covering the story.

Whether our report of shipping from the factory was newsworthy is a matter of opinion, but I hope you see the diligence that our team puts in to report things like this.