The Gathering Note

Last week LA Weekly institution Alan Rich was let go. 82 years old and the powers that be take him out for lunch and fire him. Today, Seattle Times critic Melinda Bargreen was let go. After 31 years of faithful service the Times Bargreen was given a buy out and told to go.

Bargreen’s forced departure might be more the result of the Times need to release hundreds of staff than a lack of commitment to covering the arts and classical music in particular. In fact, Bargreen may appear in print again. Will it be as a freelancer with the Times? For the sake of the music I certainly hope so. Offering Bargreen the chance to continue her work for the paper as a freelancer would allow her to continue providing her keen insight and view of the music at a much reduced cost.

More than anyone, I know the opportunities that are available on the Internet for ensuring robust classical coverage. I was surprised at how quickly this site attracted regular visitors and grew. We are on pace to double our traffic in one month. We have the capacity to cover music in ways newspapers can’t. Word counts aren’t an issue. You can update stories immediately as new information flows in. Further exploration with url links and audio files are possible. None of this is possible with a newspaper.

While a few pessimists are convinced classical music is in the last throws of a long, painful, and ultimately unceremonious death (haven’t we heard this before?) the facts on the ground point to something entirely different. Classical MP3 downloads are on the rise and the labels are increasingly releasing Internet only albums. For example, Thomas Ades Violin Concerto (to be performed next year by the SSO) was released by EMI as a download only. Subscriptions at our own Seattle Symphony are at an all time high. Most telling is the quick rise of countless community, part time and semi professional groups performing everything from orchestral to chamber music. This growth wouldn’t be possible without growing interest in classical music.

So why are newspapers dumping their critics? My own feeling is that newspapers, Seattle’s two dailies included, haven’t figured out a way to fit their classical coverage to a greatly changed classical music scene and changed ways people, including the current audience for classical music, digest both music and news about said music.

This isn’t confined to classical coverage though. As the Internet grew, so did the problems for newspapers. For the sake of the music, I hope the Times and the PI figure out how to cover classical music in a way that fits with the evolving newspaper industry.