{"id":99,"date":"2009-04-29T11:32:33","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T11:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp\/2009\/04\/be_the_curator\/"},"modified":"2016-01-05T16:42:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-06T00:42:26","slug":"be_the_curator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/be_the_curator.html","title":{"rendered":"Power Law – Why Arts Organizations Need To Reinvent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newspaper publishers have been lashing out at Google for aggregating headlines and selling ads on the news feeds. The criticisms are controversial (my thoughts here<\/a>). Google directs huge rivers of traffic to news stories, and publications like that. But aggregation has in some ways come to compete with the news organizations themselves.<\/p>\n

\"reinventing.jpg\"<\/span><\/a>Most newspapers have thought of themselves as producers of news. But journalism isn’t just writing stories, it’s having the news judgment to decide what stories are important and explaining why. Google is a kind of uber-curator of news, somewhat diminishing the important news curation role of traditional editors and reporters.<\/p>\n

More important, it pushes news organizations into the position writers have been in for years. Writers have always been a commodity whose fates have largely been determined by the publications in which they appeared. Because publications did the hiring and deciding what stories were published, they generally had the power in the relationship.<\/p>\n

If aggregators assume the gatekeeper role, publications step down a rung, joining writers as producers rather than gatekeepers. This is a significant weakening of traditional publisher power. Publications still compete if they have a strong brand and it still means something to be published in the New York Times or the local newspaper. But even this brand power is being challenged by crowd-rated news services like Digg, which try to qualify and organize stories based on how people rate them.<\/p>\n

So news organizations are caught in a wildly expanding consumer marketplace where they offer products (stories) that are only a click away from any of a million other stories. News organizations still have an advantage as brands and they have resources they can throw into coverage. But increasingly, individual writers and small websites can compete more efficiently because they don’t have to carry the institutional overhead. Thus a classic example of innovation (the web) subverting a less efficient model (print). Another way of putting it might be that as production and distribution gets cheaper, competition increases.<\/p>\n

A similar dynamic might also be playing out in the arts. Traditionally, arts organizations have seen themselves as producers. But they were also\u00a0\u00a0gatekeepers\/curators who determined what their audiences would be \u00a0exposed to. If you’re the symphony orchestra in town, your programming is what people heard, and what they heard shaped their aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Now\u00a0there are more options. If you’re just one producer in an increasingly\u00a0crowded marketplace you have the news organization problem. If your\u00a0brand is strong like the Metropolitan Opera, you still have an\u00a0advantage. But if you’re just another theatre company, you’re just\u00a0another theatre company competing with YouTube and streaming and music and video and e-readers and games.<\/p>\n

Now you not only have to\u00a0make the case that what you do is excellent, you probably have to make\u00a0the case that an audience should choose live theatre over music or\u00a0video or… Saying you’re the best chamber orchestra doesn’t mean much\u00a0if you can’t make the case for chamber orchestras. Advertising a star\u00a0singer doesn’t mean much if you can’t make the case for the live opera\u00a0experience.<\/p>\n

The weakest place in the chain to be these days is\u00a0to be the producer. Content may be king, but if you’re just another\u00a0choice among many, it’s difficult to compete, especially if you’re\u00a0carrying high overhead. Instead, you have to define your niche and be\u00a0the expert in that niche. It’s not enough to a chamber orchestra that\u00a0plays well, you have to define the niche in a way that makes you\u00a0central to it.<\/p>\n

For example: The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has\u00a0billed itself as “America’s chamber orchestra.” Well, it may be that the SPCO plays better than any other chamber orchestra in America. But\u00a0what makes it “America’s chamber orchestra”? For anyone outside of\u00a0Minnesota or Chicago, it’s a meaningless boast.<\/p>\n

What if\u00a0instead the orchestra attempted to define what a chamber orchestra is\u00a0in America? If it pointed to the best performances and programs\u00a0elsewhere, if it made itself into a resource for anyone interested in\u00a0chamber orchestras? If it touted the accomplishments of those it worked\u00a0with? If it created a community around the idea of and interest in chamber orchestras? Then the claim has something to back it up.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0season the orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary, not just with a\u00a0concert but with invitations to the world’s best chamber orchestras to\u00a0come to St. Paul so audiences could make comparisons. That’s owning the\u00a0space, a brilliant, gutsy thing to do. But outside the city the swagger\u00a0is invisible.<\/p>\n

So what?<\/p>\n

Because success isn’t just\u00a0about selling tickets in the short term. It’s about creating a\u00a0community of relationships, about being more than a producer lost in a\u00a0sea of choices. It’s about setting yourself up as the aggregator of an aesthetic and positioning yourself at the center of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newspaper publishers have been lashing out at Google for aggregating headlines and selling ads on the news feeds. The criticisms are controversial (my thoughts here). Google directs huge rivers of traffic to news stories, and publications like that. But aggregation has in some ways come to compete with the news organizations themselves. Most newspapers have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-99","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ePZm-1B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/for_every_door_that_closes.html","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":0},"title":"For every door that closes…","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"ArtsJournal has been a bit depressing lately. Day after day, there's news of cuts in public funding\u00a0 arts organizations cutting back, retrenching, or going out of business. Growing numbers of unemployed artists. These links from just the past week or so.And yet, I keep hearing other stories arts organizations holding\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2506,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2021\/10\/five-observations-on-the-arts-18-months-into-covid-finances.html","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":1},"title":"Observations on the Arts 18 Months into COVID: Finances","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"October 21, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Many arts organizations are coming out of the COVID shutdown in better financial shape than they were going in.","rel":"","context":"In "arts and business"","block_context":{"text":"arts and business","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/arts-and-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/church-g2c17e2802_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C561&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/church-g2c17e2802_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C561&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/church-g2c17e2802_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C561&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/church-g2c17e2802_1280-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C561&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":346,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/03\/you_know_youre_in_trouble_when-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":2},"title":"You Know You're In Trouble When You're Just A Can Of Peas","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Interactivity has been redefined in the past few years. Newspapers used to think they were interactive because they ran letters to the editor. Rarely did they respond to the letters (unless those letters demanded a correction), but \"hearing from the readers\" became a mantra for the focus-group-driven news organization.Arts organizations\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"social-media-people.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/social-media-people.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":988,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2016\/08\/whos-telling-your-story-storytellers-are-our-leaders.html","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":3},"title":"Who’s Telling Your Story? (Storytellers Are Leaders)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"August 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week the Brooklyn artist space National Sawdust\u00a0announced it had hired away Steve Smith from the Boston Globe to start an ambitious new culture journal. Smith is a former NYTimeser, a serious journalist, and an ambitious hire. So why? According to Smith: Our new journal initiative is not meant to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ideas"","block_context":{"text":"ideas","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/ideas"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sawd.jpg?fit=700%2C289&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sawd.jpg?fit=700%2C289&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sawd.jpg?fit=700%2C289&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sawd.jpg?fit=700%2C289&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/ap_throws_a_tantrum_but_tantru.html","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":4},"title":"AP Throws A Tantrum (But Tantrums Do Not A Successful Business Model Make)","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"April 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"AP says it will \"take action\" against web aggregators that don't pay fees for linking to AP stories. Taking aim at the way news is spread across the Internet, The Associated Press said on Monday that it will demand that Web sites obtain permission to use the work of The\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 5 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 5 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2009\/04\/ap_throws_a_tantrum_but_tantru.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"apbuilding (2).jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/apbuilding%20%282%29.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2007\/03\/the_great_newspaper_comments_d.html","url_meta":{"origin":99,"position":5},"title":"The Great Newspaper Comments Debate","author":"Douglas McLennan","date":"March 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Newspapers have long touted how responsive they are to readers. They want to hear from readers. They care what readers think. They try to give readers what they want. How then to interpret these debates over what to do with reader comments on news stories? News organizations realize that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}