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There’s no question that arts coverage as we’ve known it is on the way out. The statistics for traditional arts journalism are even worse than those for print journalism in general. Take this one, courtesy of McLennan, who also heads up the National Arts Journalism Program, an organization founded to promote arts coverage by offering midcareer fellowships to working journalists. “In the last two years,” McLennan says, “50 percent of arts journalism jobs have been lost.” And that’s not all: even the NAJP has suspended its fellowships.
“It’s a major kill-off,” McLennan says, with “major implications for how culture gets covered. Right now, there’s no financial model that supports doing cultural journalism.”
That should narrow the field. Directions on the summit Web site said, “Above all, we’re looking for viability, both as a business and as a journalistic enterprise.” But a sampling of the entries—which were posted as they came in—suggests that most are sketchy on the business plan and a majority are depending, at least partially, on the generosity of unspecified foundations and donors.
aArt Babble and Dashboard—projects by and about the Indianapolis Art Museum.
But fine as ArtsJournal is, and though it passes along three-quarters of its blog ad revenue to its bloggers, that doesn’t yet amount to much. Rosenbaum has been up-front about her quest for ads on the blog, and, although she’s not a charity, she’s let readers know that she welcomes donations (via PayPal).
