January Issue Delivered

Oh my gosh, is the January issue out already?

When I got back into town on Sunday, December 29, I was shocked to see the January issue on my doorstep. I wasn't expecting to see it until January 5!

For those who have been reading the Weekly Update e-blasts, you know that starting with the December issue, we switched to periodical rate mailing, which can take up to two weeks to deliver. The December issue hit fairly late, and I expected the January issue to also, what with the holidays and all.

Now, it does sometimes take longer for the magazine to hit other regions of the Bay Area (simply a distance thing). But I'm guessing you'll all have it by around January 2.

Well, if it's really working as well as I think it is, and if it continues to work well, I think this periodical rate thing is awesome. The delivery time is about the same, and it's nearly half the cost.

And thanks to you all for being so patient with this transition!

SF Weekly Cuts Caps

Last week, SF Weekly theatre critic Chloe Veltman says in her personal blog that the Weekly has cut back yet again on theatre coverage. Chloe pens a 1,000-word essay, and some other freelancers offer capsule reviews, which run about 20-300 words. The paper will no longer print capsule reviews in the month of January, a trend that’s likely to continue. Chloe will still write her essay. This means only one review a week.

Now, dwindling arts coverage has been a hot topic for years, and like many in this field, I feel arts coverage should be revived. But I’ll probably go into that more in another post. What I want to talk about here is based on one of Chloe’s comments:

“Small companies in particular rely heavily on reviews not just for selling tickets but also for getting grants. In these tough economic times, the fall-off in media interest is particularly crippling.”

While I think we should always advocate for more coverage, the sad truth is that even in better times (even before 9/11) newspapers were still cutting arts coverage. We made small gains then, but we probably won’t make them now.

Here’s my controversial opinion: Theatre companies should no longer rely on reviews as their main marketing tool. Newspapers are a capsizing ship, and though the ship may be righted again, it’ll still take a lot of time and the ship will still have significant damage, and after restoration, may not even be recognizable as the thing it once was. (Have you heard the Chronicle is planning a massive redesign?) We’ve seen this coming for years, and companies need to create an evacuation plan.

We love to hate the Little Man, yet if we get a good one, we slap him on our promotional materials, and why not? Basically, the companies are dependent on the Man and have little backup plan if they get a bad one, or don’t get one at all. One midsize company was shocked when the Chronicle didn’t review them at all, and their ticket sales plummeted and they had to cancel performances. When I asked them about their marketing plan, it was vague. Now, what kind of investment planner would tell you that your portfolio should only consist of stock from one corporation? No matter if that corporation was Hearst or Village Voice Media.

Sure, it’s easy—and free—to rely on good reviews and the Little Man. But it should only be one piece of your portfolio pie, because if doesn’t perform (so to speak), you’ll go broke.

I also think that foundations shouldn’t place so much emphasis on press, but that’s another topic for another time.

I'd love to hear from companies about the ways their diversifying their marketing. Comment away!

Farewell, Chad

On Sunday, Chad Jones over at Theater Dogs gave us the bittersweet news that he’s moving to Sacramento to take a job as an editor at the Sacramento Bee. (Good to know that at least one “local” paper is hiring.) He told me this a couple of weeks ago, but I waited until he broke the news first.

While I’m sure everyone in the Bay Area theatre scene is thrilled to see that one of our most ardent supporters has a regular paycheck again after being laid off from ANG Newspapers a while back, I know I’m very sorry to see him go. After he left ANG, I snagged him as a freelancer, and he’s contributed some lively and entertaining articles to the magazine, so I’m sad to lose one of my best writers. And his Theater Dogs stands out as, for my money, the best theatre blog in the Bay Area. ANG didn’t know what they had, and when Theater Dogs went independent, it grew to tens of thousands of visits—showing that local audiences are indeed hungry for news other than airheaded celeb news—and gained the respect of local publicists, companies and touring stars. For very little, if any, money, Chad continued to cover local theatre like no one else.

I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him—I hear he and his husband are renting out, not selling, their gorgeous house—but we’ll certainly miss his blog and articles. (Most big papers don’t like their employees to moonlight.) He says Theater Dogs is going on hiatus; I hope it returns in some form. In the meantime, the rest of us bloggers have some big shoes to fill. Break a leg, Chad!

Second Wind's Production Blog

Sure, production blogs are nothing new. Companies large and small publish them, entice their actors to post to them, all for a variety of reasons, but mostly to deepen their audiences' experience with the production and the company.

Ian Walker, playwright, director and Second Wind cofounder, has launched a production blog for Meadowland, which opens in January. Walker's intent, he tells me, is to provide a peek into how a small theatre company operates. Each blog entry is accompanied by some pretty decent video on the topics, which range from the audition process for finding nine Asian American actors to a look inside a costume design meeting and a discussion of how Walker directs his own work. In short, it's really a diary, but more informative than navel-gazing.

Ian Walker is writing, directing and producing Meadowland. How he finds time to edit and upload thoughtful video to his blog at least once a week, if not more often, is darn impressive.

There's Hope for Shakespeare Santa Cruz

Last weekend the news traveled fast through the blogosphere: Shakespeare Santa Cruz needs to raise $300,000 by December 22 or it would cancel its 2009 season. As of Wednesday morning, it raised $127,602 and released a video of artistic director Marco Barricelli stumping for live theatre and the arts.

Of course, Shakespeare Santa Cruz isn't the only company facing dire straits. Foothill Theatre Company (not to be confused with Foothill College/Foothill Music Theatre) recently saved itself, for the time being, from closing its doors, but AMTSJ, San Jose's oldest performing arts institution, filed for bankruptcy and we're hearing more bad news from other Bay Area theatre companies.

You'll be hearing more from me and Theatre Bay Area on this topic....