Huffington Classical
[Note: This post has been updated (1) as of 6:59 PM Eastern on 5 Jun. See below.]
With today's confirmation ("A ‘New York’ Run Ends") of the firing of New York Magazine's long-time and first-rate classical music critic, Peter G. Davis, first learned about on 1 June on Henry Fogel's ArtsJournal blog, On The Record, and the retirement of the position he held, along with a number of recent similar firings and position retirings at other major publications across the country, things really do seem to fast be approaching epidemic proportions on this particular front nationwide. If proof were needed not of the seemingly ubiquitous prognostications of "the death of classical music," but of the marginalization of classical music in our postmodern culture, this epidemic-in-the-making is certainly right up there near the top of the evidence schedule for the prosecution.
So, is the dastardly culprit in these firings and position retirings the big, bad, greedy, and philistine Mainstream Media? Easy to find them guilty of the crime, we know, but we think such a verdict would be a too-facile rush to judgment, you should pardon the expression. The MSM is as much victim of the current Zeitgeist as are those fired classical music critics and their retired positions.
What to do? Is there a viable answer — an economically viable answer — to that question, or is it just a matter of, And so it goes, and Qué será, será, and that's that?
We think there is an economically viable answer, and its key is the Internet (surprise!). And, no, we do not mean the Blogosphere, although it, too, will have its own important if supporting role to play. We're thinking along the lines of a daily digital publication such as The Huffington Post, but a digital publication devoted exclusively to the coverage of the classical music and opera world nationwide, the initial roster of contributors to which — paid contributors who would be given the freedom to write what they wished, how they wished, and at whatever length they wished — would be every MSM classical music critic and reviewer in the country: present, former, and soon-to-be former.
Pie-in-the-sky pipe dream you say? We don't think so. It would require initially a non-trivial investment of seed money by an enlightened, forward-looking, and wealthy White Knight to launch and maintain until the ad revenue proved sufficient to the job of keeping the publication afloat, and would require as well a managing editor well respected enough by the nationwide pool of prospective professional contributors to sell them on the idea, but the concept is not only doable, but in our considered opinion the way of the future, and the very near future at that.
White Knights, please forward notice of your intention.
Update (6:59 PM Eastern on 5 Jun): More on the Peter G. Davis firing here. The way New York Magazine is reported to have handled this business is bloody disgraceful. Our thanks to classical music critic Martin Bernheimer for the heads-up.
