It’s only in the glorious twilight(?) of my career that I’ve been experiencing journalism as a subject (because of my blogging prominence), as well as a practitioner. I now know firsthand the frustration of talking to an interviewer who seems to have difficulty taking notes, let alone understanding what I’m saying.
Then there’s the smart and empathetic Deanna Isaacs, who interviewed me at length for Who Wants to Be the Future of Arts Journalism?. Her report, pegged to the National Summit on Arts Journalism, has just been posted on the website of the Chicago Reader, a venerable alternative weekly, itself struggling to find a financially viable journalism model for the future.
Deanna seemed to “get it” from the get-go, but I never expected to be so prominently (and flatteringly) featured in her piece (which gave the most space to comments by ArtsJournal‘s founder/editor, Doug McLennan).
Here are excerpts from Deanna’s first paragraph:
Lee Rosenbaum, the veteran east-coast journalist behind the CultureGrrl blog, seemed to have a bead on the future. Her smart, breezy, deeply informed, and brazenly opinionated posts focused on visual art, especially art museums, and she had a faithful following among museum professionals. (Her other gigs have included frequent freelance contributions to the Wall Street Journal, where she reported, for instance, on the recent opening of the Art Institute’s Modern Wing.)…When Rosenbaum announced this spring that she was stepping back from daily blogging because she hadn’t found a way to make it pay (and needed to devote her time to something that might, like a book), it was sobering. Isn’t the online arena where all journalism is headed?
Well, you all know how successful I was about “stepping back.” Deanna gets into that too…at the end of her piece.
Addiction is hard to kick. But where are my enablers? It appears that my old and new “Donate” and “Buy Now” yellow buttons in the middle column are nodding off. I need a hit, art-lings, or I might just go cold turkey and write that book (probably a GOOD thing!).