Secrets of the City

NPR has good interviews with several players in this area.

i listened to that last week and again today–the NPR interviews. the perspective i tend to agree with is that they are not losing advertising revenue, but that they are looking to make more. so you have to ask yourself why not? does it really matter? only time will tell on the writing and editorial staff. we’ve just been really really blessed with great criticism, music coverage, some interesting editors… CP has always been willing to take risks. the advertising got freakishly nastier after the personals moved away toward the internet. it will be interesting to see what emerges in terms of editorial priorities. i cannot possibly imagine what will happen.

I for one will cry no tears if they take away Steve Perry’s soapbox.

He is a GREAT singer though!

Don’t Stop Believin’ rocks!

This really bums me out – especially the part about CP’s potential move toward more national arts coverage (most likely at the expense of local arts coverage). With the ridiculous reassignment of Matt Peiken at the Pioneer Press to “suburban life” or whatever they chose to call it, the Twin Cities lost a strong, intelligent voice in arts criticism. The City Pages’ coverage by Quinton Skinner, Diabo Cody, and Dylan Hicks is really the only saving grace left in the Twin Cities – and if that goes, we will be in the embarrassing position of having a fantastic arts scene that has subpar coverage/criticism. Not cool.

I suppose that I should clarify that I am mainly referring to theater/performing arts criticism.