{"id":60,"date":"2008-08-19T02:09:54","date_gmt":"2008-08-19T02:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=60"},"modified":"2008-08-19T02:09:54","modified_gmt":"2008-08-19T02:09:54","slug":"mr_wakin_tear_down_this_wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2008\/08\/mr_wakin_tear_down_this_wall\/","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Wakin, tear down this wall!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third paragraph of his August 6th article<\/a> in The New York Times<\/i>, Dan Wakin quotes Opera Omnia<\/a> artistic director Wesley Chinn’s press release:<\/p>\n

The first news release quoted the founder and artistic director, Wesley
\nChinn, as saying, “I can’t actually pretend to quote myself in a
\nrelease I’m writing myself just to satisfy the conventions of
\npress-release style.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fourth paragraph:<\/p>\n

If the tongue-in-cheek communiqu\u00e9 was meant to draw attention during
\nthe summer doldrums, it worked. But further investigation reveals that
\nOpera Omnia is a serious entry into the ranks of small-bore companies
\nin New York. The troupe, consisting of performers mostly in their 20s
\nand 30s and operating on a tissue-thin budget, plans to stage its first
\nproduction this month at Le Poisson Rouge (the former Village Gate) on
\nBleecker Street, starting on Aug. 21.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well,
\nthat’s new. Artists and administrators alike have confessed to me that
\nthey wrote their own press releases for concerts, CD releases and
\ncareer moves, admissions always ending with “[dot dot dot] but please
\ndon’t tell anyone.” One artist told me she created a Gmail account
\nunder a fake name and pretended to be her own publicist, complete with
\ne mail exchanges such as, “Yes, let me check on Ms. X’s availability
\nfor that interview.”<\/p>\n

Why do we feel the need to operate under
\nthe paper-thin veil of objectiveness? Artists pay me to represent them
\nto the media; does that make me more or less objective than an artist
\nrepresenting him or herself? Perhaps slightly more, provided you give
\nme the benefit of the outside-perspective doubt, but I’m far from an
\nunbiased presenter of information; hardly a veritable “Wikipedia of
\nmedia relations”.<\/p>\n

The Opera Omnia\/Dan Wakin
\npiece represents a breaking down of the fourth wall of media outreach.
\nNot only did an artistic director clearly state that he was writing his
\nown press release, but <\/i>a New York Times<\/i> writer goes and
\nincludes this detail in his feature! In fact, that aspect of the press
\nrelease seems to be the very thing that led Wakin to research the opera
\ncompany further. Would the affect (and result) have been the same if
\nChinn had simply written his release in the first person? “My company,
\nOpera Omnia, will be performing at…on…at this time.”? Despite the
\nquality of writing or substance of presentation, a first-person narrative in a press release still has an amateur air,
\nbut why? Is it better to have an exceedingly professional release about
\na project\/artist of lesser quality? Of course not, so why the stigma?<\/p>\n

Before I fully put myself out of a career, I will say
\nthis: one of a publicist’s most important jobs is reaching out to the appropriate critics about the appropriate projects in the appropriate tone. If I know
\na critic, I’m not going to send him or her the formal “attached please find a
\nmedia alert…” e mail. Similarly, I wouldn’t send a critic a press
\nrelease about a new music project if he or she had never written a new music
\nreview in his\/her career. Dan Wakin appreciated the candor, drollness and ultimately the subject matter
\nof the Opera Omnia pitch. Perhaps Wesley Chinn did his research, or
\nperhaps he just got lucky. Either way, there’s a hopeful message in this: write press releases in whichever
\nvoice or from whichever Gmail account you want, just write them well, don’t be afraid to show some personality, and do your homework on the critics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the third paragraph of his August 6th article in The New York Times, Dan Wakin quotes Opera Omnia artistic director Wesley Chinn’s press release: The first news release quoted the founder and artistic director, Wesley Chinn, as saying, “I can’t actually pretend to quote myself in a release I’m writing myself just to satisfy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-60","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}