A lot has happened since May 1. It’s hard for me to get out as much as I should — and need to if I’m going to be an art publisher, as the artworld is a pretty handshake/air kiss place. So I was going to play catch-up shmoozing, and sell some ads. Then I got a call and needed to fly out ASAP.
I missed most of Art Chicago, and with it, imagined myself with stacks of business cards, good impressions and verbal agreements.
I came back, the site was in shambles, and once I caught up, I looked at the advertising calendar:
Nothing.
May was blank. June. Blank.
So I began a largely solo trudge up the ugly hill known as cold calling, getting more bitter with each step. Everyone the same answer, “we have no budget” and worse, “we never buy advertising” .
And then this statement was always followed by a predictable pause and a sudden brightness as the assistant would say, “But you should come see the show! It’s going to be great!”
And funny how the truth just sometimes pops out of your mouth. When the hundreth gallery assistant said, “we don’t believe in advertising”, … it just came out, I said:
“well I don’t know if I believe in giving free editorial to people who are committed to never supporting us.”
And in May, I proceeded to take 5 galleries off the critic’s pick list. About 10% of the list.
And then I micro blogged about it on Facebook and of course I got a lot of heat. And it did get my thinking. And thinking and thinking. I thought about it so much that when I went to the grocery store I came home with a bunch of random items and nothing for dinner.
But I did have a conclusion:
The reason we can’t get advertisers is because we do reviews.
Think about it. If you’re great, we’ll cover you. And everyone else has to pay because they’re not “good enough” to get free editorial.
Who the hell is going to sign up for that?
Here’s a metaphor: Imagine a group of women standing outside a nightclub, waiting in line, ready to pay a cover to get in (read galleries ready to buy a sponsored post). Then a bouncer comes and picks 5 attractive women out of the line, and escorts them for free into the building, cutting ahead of the line (read galleries that get reviewed). How does that make every other women in line feel? Pretty lousy.
So what would happen is that I would get on the phone and try to sell a sponsored post to a gallery. They would tell me flat out that I should just give them free ink.
Now I can safely let them know that there is 0% chance of getting free press about their exhibit. If they want ink, they have to get a sponsored post, no exceptions.
And it’s a deeper issues than all that. The review pick process has gotten fairly skewed, it’s not as diverse a group of critics I had dreamed of (diverse in ethnicity, age, geographical interest, and type of art interest), and we started to slant towards the same galleries New City was reviewing. And the same galleries over and over. This was on the road to remedy with bonuses for never-previously-covered venues, but .. well, reviews are tricky on lots of levels.
So for the time being, until we get finances in order, we’ll suspend gallery reviews of CAMag.
The next post will be about the editorial we’ll have in its place.
