Making Art Criticism Profitable
Josh Sprague - July 15th, 2008
Today on Here and Now, a daily newsmagazine from WBUR in Boston, they interview Doug McLennan of ArtsJournal.com. It's a great listen as McLennan discusses his move from being an arts critic at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to creating an art news website and keeping it profitable.The initial angle of the interview focuses on the layoff of art critics from US newspapers. Rather than bemoaning their plight, McLennan says the art critic system we've had for the last 50 years "hasn't been very good." He says further:
Even though this is a very painful transition from one model that doesn't work...ultimately the thing that will come out of it will be something much, much better than what we've had. The question is, " What is that thing going to be?"
During the tech boom of the early 90s, he was offered $1 million for ArtsJournal.com after only three months of starting. He passed and now reports that he profits from advertising, paid newsletter subscriptions, and providing his content to others (though this one fluctuates). There's more about changing business models in the interview, so check it out.
Image via eob's flickr stream.
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