The recent revelation that the Independent on Sunday is shuttering its own arts coverage for a sourced digest of other critics has not just journalists worried. A lot of musicians are concerned, too.
The panic cuts especially deep because the Sindy cuts come on the back of Donald Rosenberg also losing his byline at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Classicalite asked several of today's leading musicians for their thoughts.
As with conductor Andrew Litton and baritone Anthony Michaels-Moore, countertenor Iestyn Davies has his own thoughts, as well:
"Defending arts critics when you're a singer is a tough thing, especially when over 50 per cent of reviews I am mentioned in spell my name incorrectly with an 'L;' if you don't actually know who you are reviewing in the first place you've got a brass neck to opine. That said, I'm sure the majority of such errors are not to be found in the old school arts sections of our familiar newspapers. In my opinion, the growing number of 'critics' on the internet has threatened the print critics of old. It has to do with the standard of writing, in part. A 'good' critic is a good writer too, someone who has a talent to frame basic facts and their thoughts about a piece in an entertaining and novel fashion. The 'art' in arts reviewing is not just limited to the performer or performance. What I've noticed in the last few years is the old maxim 'everyone's a critic,' with blogs and review sites popping up every other day. There appears in the most part to be no or very little editorial control on what is written on such sites, and the content is often poorly put together. Having an opinion is not enough. As the old saying goes, 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.' There are a few sites that do make an obvious effort to maintain a standard and possibly see themselves as the future of arts reviewing. But the danger of firing critics at newspapers and closing up the arts sections of papers is that it all seems too hasty. Whilst technology changes are fast and furious, we need to play catch up each day. What we think might be happening is not necessarily what will be the norm in a few years from now. Most internet-based innovations (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) were not predicted by the masses to be everyday lifelines for so many people. Who are we to decide what will stick in the long run? And for that reason, it is a sad day to see newspapers so easily discarding good, creative writers. Perhaps though, the print world's loss will be the internet's gain. I for one see online publishing and editing becoming a far more controlled and standardized market place; surely it won't be long before content control invites more paid journalists and a healthier future for arts criticism?"
More insightful responses, of course, as Classicalite gets them!
