Comments on: Big cuts in arts coverage at City Pages

By: Jimmy Longoria

Jimmy Longoria — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:37:16 +0000

Ah the dia de los muertos has a habit making look for souls.
It sad that only writers write about writers dying in their souls.
But let me say this; there are a few of us painters who read. We to see what the “words” can provide for amplification of the observation of truth. Tragically it does’t sell papers. I read once that Billy H. employed poets and cartoonists to reach out to the common man(women did most of the reading, still do). But it took burning theaters, social masterpieces and great personalities to sell the nickel rags.

It is interesting to see the news on my laptop, with sixth block ads twisting the stories that catch my eye. I think nothing is as new as the old answer in a new wrapper.

But then again what do I know painting on walls on broken down buildings for one dollar? Art goes on in a strange sorta way while all of those who wrote about it seem to not understand. People still open their eyes, ask the driver to stop the bus and look at the painting on the wall. No gallery needed, no guards and best of all no critics.

Perhaps it is a good thing the paper pulpits are crumbling-but mankind being as he is will bring back the critics-if not maybe the coyote will,…..

By: ann klefstad

ann klefstad — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:54:52 +0000

and o incidentally Skinner’s got a couple of lovely novels out. Now would be the time to buy them, I think.

By: ann klefstad

ann klefstad — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:53:17 +0000

The moonlighting thing for arts journalists has always been around– I have a bunch of fallback things that I slogged away at for years before finally getting decently paid regular work in journalism, first web and then print, and then — whee!– Republican fun on Wall Street vacuumed up (ha!) all the dollars and we’re all freelancing again. . . it’s not better. There is no bright side. But I think MinnPost’s idea of imitating both print and MPR on the web is a good one. It’s just people aren’t used to the idea of paying for this kind of content yet. Maybe if it gets scarce enough people will. Pay, I mean.

By: Susannah Schouweiler

Susannah Schouweiler — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:53:54 +0000

Sorry for the miscommunication, Jessica. I’ve made the correction to clarify.

By: Jessica Armbruster

Jessica Armbruster — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:41:16 +0000

Hey Susannah, thanks for the article. Ben, the Associate A List Editor/Calendar Editor was indeed let go. However, the A List Editor (me) at City Pages pages is still employed full-time.

Take Care,

Jessica Armbruster, City Pages A List Editor

By: Susannah Schouweiler

Susannah Schouweiler — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:36:35 +0000

I think a lot of folks are moonlighting to supplement their incomes, Camille. It’s become a necessity to start looking at other kinds of places that need good copy: B2B mags, trade stuff, PR materials. I’m not even sure it’s such a bad thing that we who freelance in this field are being prompted to diversify our client-base. Still. It’s hard not to mourn the days of beat journalism and the old-school newsroom, with it’s layers of reportage and editing, fact checking, and copyeditor. Seems so luxurious, doesn’t it? But I feel compelled to note that, from my own experience with it, short-form, quick-and-nasty writing’s got its merits, too. It’s fun to do and valuable for breadth and speed of coverage. The pace just takes my breath away. But it’s also an inherently ephemeral form, inclined toward lots of briefs, but not much time for depth. The short form stuff is just an altogether different animal from the evergreen endurance offered by the well-researched, fact-checked, finely edited essay. They’re just aiming at different needs, different audience expectations, and different modes of communication, I think. I’m hoping for some “best of both worlds” scenario to win out–some hybrid vigor from the pairing of the virtues of print depth with the speed and agility of online publishing.

By: Camille LeFevre

Camille LeFevre — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:16:54 +0000

Thank you for the thoughtful piece, Susannah, which insightfully captures so many of our (arts writers’) concerns, thoughts, and hopes as the year of living carefully, tentatively begins. Since leaving the Star Tribune (yes, I chose to leave), I’ve been deliberating on how to manifest/deploy 20 years of experience in arts journalism and dance criticism in ways that will serve the dance community, continue to challenge me as a writer and still bring in some income. With the change in format and pay cut for arts writers at minnpost.com, short-form writing has entered the mainstream once occupied by the kind of writing–the long form, critical essay Quinton’s so adept at. I’ve been playing with public relations, writing for free in order to foster good will…but after years of being paid for work I love to do, it’s tough going. Yes, we need new business models to make long-form online writing lucrative enough to keep the best writers with years of experience contributing to discourse on the arts. Is there any way to get together funders, corporate sponsors, arts journalists, publishers and editors to break new ground and find a model/paradigm that works?

By: Karl Pearson-Cater

Karl Pearson-Cater — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:48:35 +0000

We recently launched more arts coverage in our new Arts Arena Blog at MinnPost.com:

http://www.minnpost.com/artsarena

MinnPost is a non-profit. Don’t have quite the girth of MPR’s budget, but we’re growing. Advertising is picking up. I would humbly suggest becoming a member of MinnPost to help support high quality local arts coverage.

(Disclaimers: I work at MinnPost. Formerly worked at City Pages.)

By: Rich Horton

Rich Horton — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:06:55 +0000

Is there a possibility to do something like public radio and do it for a publication/website/new media deal? It has been something I have been going over in my mind for along time. Every time I hear about MPR raising ten million dollars. I keep thinking it wouldn’t take quite that much overhead and people could get paid. This would also take out any political slant and also all the advertising and instead have a page of sponsors and contributors. I am up for discussing it, just let me know.

By: Susannah Schouweiler

Susannah Schouweiler — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:04:26 +0000

You’re dead right about that. There are scads of skilled writers and editors around here looking for steady work. It’s crazy. And if we could figure out the funding side of things (the perennial “if”, I know), one could pull a killer masthead together for a new arts mag. But how to pay for it? Everyone’s just waiting for a viable business model to shake out, something that allows publishers enough revenue to pay writers actual wages. I hate to say it, but it looks, so far anyway, like the trend is toward freelancers + less pay for writing. I don’t think it’s because publishers are stingy – in fact, I think they’re losing money – I think they just can’t figure out how to extract money from content effectively yet. I think somebody will. But waiting for the problem to get worked out is terrible. I wonder how many talented journalists and critics will simply move on to something else in the interim?