Decline of Theater Critique--National Crisis?

L.A. theater leaders decry elimination of arts writers and editors
From The Los Angeles Times' Culture Monster blog, 1/18/09
The recent reports of the elimination of theater critic, writer and editor positions at the Los Angeles Daily News, LA Weekly and the Daily Breeze came as a blow to Los Angeles' stage community. Late Thursday, Culture Monster received a letter signed by Gilbert Cates of the Geffen Playhouse, Sheldon Epps of the Pasadena Playhouse and Michael Ritchie of Center Theatre Group -- decrying the decline in voices and calling on the arts community to keep the conversation going. "It may seem somewhat ironic that leaders of arts institutions would come out in favor of further criticism. It would be like fire hydrants getting together to come out in favor of more dogs. But, as artistic leaders who run three of the larger theater organizations in Los Angeles, we've recently become worried. Over the last few months there has been a conspicuous disappearance of arts writers and editors in our local papers. Two more significant layoffs were confirmed this week. It's time for us to speak up." While the artistic directors offer no solutions, their real purpose could serve as a call to the theater community to unite to find ways to draw attention to diverse offerings on L.A.'s many stages and to the city's arts and culture in general. Read the full text of the letter here.

Chicago critics discuss "The Incredible Shrinking Arts Media"
Posted by Time Out Chicago critic Kris Vire on the blog Storefront Rebellion, 1/15/09
Earlier tonight I sat on a panel [of arts journalists] for an audience of arts administrators and PR folks about the challenges being faced by arts coverage in print media, and new directions that the arts orgs can take to reach audiences. We spent a lot of gas talking about online initiatives and social networking. Because let's face it: as I said tonight, Time Out Chicago is slimming down a bit in the new year; the Reader announced this week that it's cutting its print listings way back; the Sun-Times has been moving many reviews to online-only; and the Tribune famously cut down its news hole last year. You just can't expect print coverage as some kind of birthright at this point in time. I was struck by the remarks of a gentleman representing a theater company, who seemed particularly frustrated by the panel's focus on the web. I'm paraphrasing here, but his question was something like, "What do you do when 90% of your audience is not online?" Um...your organization dies? I don't mean to seem glib, and I didn't get to answer this person's question as thoroughly as I'd hoped in the moment. But if you intend on remaining complacent with the audience you already have, and you're not attempting to attract new audiences: You. Will. Die. It's not about feeling like oppressed artists. But we can't do your marketing job for you. As journalists and as critics, I promise we're all trying as hard as we can afford.

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