dirac Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Well, this is encouraging. Quote He and his staff at Watching have expanded the scope of service journalism at The Times — launching a newsletter with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and helping readers navigate their way through this overwhelming era of Peak TV. Recently, Watching launched a tutorial on how to cut the cable cord as well as a lively guide on how to prepare for the latest “Star Wars” movie. Not a single mention of the performing arts. Has this guy seen a play or heard an orchestra live? Write and complain, subscribers, and remind the Times that you're forking over your money to them and you're not dead yet. I hope the Times is getting a cut from Disney for promoting their franchise. Link to comment
kfw Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Ugh. His Twitter feed is not encouraging either. Paging back as far as September I saw one mention of an afternoon at the Rodin Museum, but everything else was movies and TV. Link to comment
ABT Fan Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 I guess by "culture editor" they really mean POP culture editor. So, we can expect stories on the likes of the Kardashian's and the latest Hollywood romance. I'll pass. Link to comment
dirac Posted March 9, 2018 Author Share Posted March 9, 2018 The most obvious changes to the arts pages, which predated the promotion of this fellow, were giant photos spread across the front of the section, Times readers presumably being bored easily by text, chatty Q&As with dancers about their favorite roles and favorite yogurt, and dialogues between Times critics instead of reviews by the critics. I gather these exchanges are popular online. Link to comment
miliosr Posted March 9, 2018 Share Posted March 9, 2018 9 hours ago, dirac said: The most obvious changes to the arts pages, which predated the promotion of this fellow, were giant photos spread across the front of the section, Times readers presumably being bored easily by text, chatty Q&As with dancers about their favorite roles and favorite yogurt, and dialogues between Times critics instead of reviews by the critics. I gather these exchanges are popular online. The Bonnie Fuller-ization of the Times . . . (Regular "readers" of US Weekly and Star will know what I'm talking about.) Link to comment
Jayne Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 (edited) On 3/9/2018 at 6:24 AM, miliosr said: The Bonnie Fuller-ization of the Times . . . (Regular "readers" of US Weekly and Star will know what I'm talking about.) The only thing missing are the drawn over red arrows, indicating who is “hot” or “not”. Edited March 13, 2018 by Jayne Spelling Link to comment
sandik Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 (edited) Beyond that, I heard through the grapevine that they are no longer sending out their art-form specific email notifications (that email with links to all the dance-specific content in each issue). I've been following along with a Facebook discussion about the general trend towards taking "dance" as a topic or a label out of names (Dance Theater Workshop becoming New York Live Arts, Gina Gibney's space shifting from "Gibney Dance" to just "Gibney.") On the one hand, these changes acknowledge the variety of work that goes on in these spaces, but I'm still a bit apprehensive about taking the "dance" out of the identity. This change at the NYT seems in line with this general trend. Edited March 11, 2018 by sandik Link to comment
angelica Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Just now, sandik said: Beyond that, I heard through the grapevine that they are no longer sending out their art-form specific email notifications (that email with links to all the dance-specific content in each issue). Hi Sandik, I'm not part of the grapevine, I'm directly affected by this new policy--I was recently advised that I will no longer get "ABT Alerts" in my email. Admittedly, this is a first world problem, but it speaks to the slow deterioration of the importance of the arts in general, and ballet as a fine art in particular. On the other hand, most of the alerts were addressed on this forum, so I'll still be in the game. Link to comment
sandik Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 1 hour ago, angelica said: Hi Sandik, I'm not part of the grapevine, I'm directly affected by this new policy--I was recently advised that I will no longer get "ABT Alerts" in my email. Admittedly, this is a first world problem, but it speaks to the slow deterioration of the importance of the arts in general, and ballet as a fine art in particular. On the other hand, most of the alerts were addressed on this forum, so I'll still be in the game. True, those of us that follow along here will keep up with the details, but as you point out, this does affect the way that the art form is perceived in the general population. If the words don't show up in the text, people don't see them, don't get that unconscious nudge that "dance" is a topic of discussion. And in the age of search engines, how do you look for something that doesn't have a name? Link to comment
miliosr Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 14 hours ago, Jayne said: The only thing missing are the drawn ober red arrows, indicating who is “hot” or “not”. And the 'Stars -- They're Just Like Us!' feature replete with a photo of someone doing something mundane (i.e. Sara Mearns pumping gas.) Link to comment
PeggyR Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 OT, but "...newsroom undergoing major changes." isn't filling me with confidence either. Link to comment
sandik Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 53 minutes ago, PeggyR said: OT, but "...newsroom undergoing major changes." isn't filling me with confidence either. It likely doesn't fill the newsroom staff with confidence either. Link to comment
ABT Fan Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 14 hours ago, miliosr said: And the 'Stars -- They're Just Like Us!' feature replete with a photo of someone doing something mundane (i.e. Sara Mearns pumping gas.) How I positively hate those. Link to comment
Quiggin Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 (edited) I was surprised by the discontinuation of emails. They suggested signing up for a newsletter, but the link doesn't work. On the positive side there are things I do like about the Times' arts reporting, such as the weekly "what to see in the galleries" capsule reviews and the weekly selection of classical music You Tube clips. They certainly do review the big dance companies (downtown was once the province of the Village Voice and I'm not sure where to go now for that). One area the Times has fallen down on is architecture and city planning reporting since Herbert Muschamp died and they replaced Nicolai Ourourssoff with arts-generalist Michael Kimmelman. But then the New Yorker certainly isn't doing its Skyline column much anymore. I do like it that the Times finally liberated the book section from being a subset of arts and let it have its own heading under the table of contents. Not sure if this culture editor's cv is not that much different from the last one's, and wasn't there anyway a hiatus in between editors? What seems to be important is that the Times is financially better off than before, due to increased subscriptions as a result, in part, to Trump's ascendency – and maybe a little fatigue with secondary sources of news (ie rumor) via the internet. Edited March 12, 2018 by Quiggin Link to comment
sandik Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 5 hours ago, Quiggin said: secondary sources of news (ie rumor) Bingo! Link to comment
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