5.18.2009

in the year 2100 art journalists will type in invisible ink

With newspapers in terminal decline, what future for arts journalism?
Coverage of the arts is migrating online but unless someone is prepared to pay for it, the outlook is uncertain
By András Szántó///The Art Newspaper

excepts/quick summary of article (because i like to add to the copying of information and scaled down fluff of what art journalism has become, wink-wink):

Arts journalism as we used to know it is sinking with the ship.
***
Specialised writers are giving way to generalists. Culture sections are being tossed overboard (standalone book review sections, in particular, are a dying breed). Article lengths and “news holes” (space for editorial content) are shrinking. All this has eviscerated newspapers’ ability to deliver quality arts coverage, which, as a result, must migrate elsewhere.
***
More people than ever are reading and writing about art, thanks to the web.
***
The problem is not the scarcity or the quality of arts journalism (the latter has always been mixed), but that no one is paying for it—at least not yet.
***
One strategy is for individual blogs to scale up to a size where their writers become popular “personal brands”. This has happened in political punditry and may happen in entertainment writing. But it is unlikely in visual arts journalism, where audiences even for top writers are thin.
***
A more realistic, already extant scenario links blogs to heavily trafficked journalism, entertainment, or aggregator sites, which attract large numbers of readers by providing access to a wide range of news content...Under such arrangements, bloggers get a cut of the advertising fees along with greater visibility...
***
When it comes to fair and balanced reporting, the record is mixed. On the one hand, bloggers are breaking stories, with arts organisations (or their disgruntled employees) obliging them with excellent scoops.
***
Philanthropy can help to build a new arts journalism infrastructure to offset the collapse of local coverage.
***
This brings us to the third, and arguably most controversial, cure for the ills of arts journalism—cultural organisations.
***
Writers will struggle to reclaim the access and influence they achieved with the backing of prestigious journalism brands.
***
Our notion of what a “news organisation” or an “art magazine” is supposed to do will be upended as new relationships crystallise between the arts, the media and the public.

No comments: