It’s hard to accept the premise that newspapers are worth saving when they cut away the reasons to buy them. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has pretty much declared it’s out of the culture coverage business by getting rid of its arts staff, including a few critics who have had national prominence. Art critic Catherine Fox has been a bright light nationally, covering antiquities. Arts journalism will survive. Just not in newspapers.
Star lifestyle writer Jim Auchmutey will be leaving. So will star war
correspondent Moni Basu — perhaps not surprising since the AJC‘s
days of sending reporters abroad seems to be over. The paper also
appears to be clearing house of its arts critics: visual arts critic
Cathy Fox, theater critic Wendell Brock and classical music critic
Pierre Ruhe, as well as Sonia Murray, who writes about the hip-hop
scene.
There's been much speculation (including in the NPR story you highlight) that blogs will fill the gap. But even that story acknowledged that most blogs, and most arts organizations' e-mail lists, have a pretty narrow reach, compared to daily newspapers. How to get beyond people who ALREADY know they're interested?
The most likely prospect I see is: public radio. Just as they are the only news org adding foreign bureaus, the local stations may be the only ones who can cover local theatre, art, music, dance, etc. In other words, serious arts journalism, especially covering local arts scenes (whether in Atlanta, Miami, or Seattle, etc), may need to be subsidized.
Broadcast reviews and reporting (and longer pieces on public radio web sites) seems the best likely solution.