Big Picture

Planning a media strategy for arts organizations

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In her post Monday Marty asked how arts organizations can reach their audiences amid the tumult of today’s media landscape, inspiring this response. Many of these thoughts also apply to public broadcasters — a good number of which present and promote arts to their audiences. The guidance reflects my experience as a follower of various kinds of organizations through media and what I’ve come to expect and appreciate from them.

This may sound basic, but first an organization must review what it most desires to accomplish via promotional media. Then it must determine which opportunities are its biggest priorities. An organization should do a great job on starting a new blog or overhauling its website in lieu of trying 20 things all at once and doing most of them poorly.

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The Public Radio App

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Happy Monday!

As a media professional, lately I’ve been asked — no solicited, begged, beseeched — by several classical music organizations for help with their media needs.  It’s getting harder and harder for groups to promote their music in the traditional media.

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Programming – Our Ongoing Controversy in Public Radio

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Responding finally to Mike’s query last week about how programmers choose their music, I think a good place to start is to look at how the successful stations program.  Of course I have my own opinions but I’ll save them until the end of this post.

If you look at the big commercial stations, WQXR in NY, WFMT in Chicago, KDFC in San Francisco, you’ll find they all have one thing in common: they all play classical music!

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A Rising Tide Floats All Boats in the Arts

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Mike has started a great thread about programming, and I hope to give it some real thought next week, but today I’m going to digress to a topic that has come up because of the economic mess we’re in.

Like most of us who work in classical music radio, I go to a lot of concerts.  I serve on boards.  All of us in radio use the power of the airwaves to promote live concert-going.  But right now, with the shrinking of arts coverage in newspapers the music organizations have lost a major means of communication.  Is it the job of radio to make up for that loss?

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