Does Pittsburgh Art Matter to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette?

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Editorial from Rick Byerly, Pittsburgh Art Galleries Blog:

It's Friday morning, February 8, 2008, and I've picked up the Pittsburgh Post Gazette to find no mention of any Pittsburgh art events. It's arguably the biggest night on the town and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette doesn't seem interested in Pittsburgh artists and art events. Their website has listings but it's just not the same as far as getting the word out.

Now granted the Post Gazette has their Weekend Mag section in the Thursday paper and that's included in their official response as to why no listings in the Friday paper but one paper a week to me says it's not that important. Space contraints are no excuse for that. The Arts section which should be there every day usually turns into a Mag and Movies section about mainstream movie reviews.

Am I a bitter? Sure. I'm a very small part of a 7 show opening event tonight involving hundreds of artists at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts from 5:30 to 8 pm and there's no mention of it in the Post Gazette Paper. There's also a reception tonight starting at 5 pm at Pitt's Barco Law Library for art photographers Tim Fabian and Bryan Conley.

And there are a ton of other Pittsburgh art events happening as well with no mention so yeah I've got a reason to complain! And so does anyone interested in the Pittsburgh arts scene who thinks the Post Gazette needs to step up their efforts and have daily listings of Pittsburgh art events. The PG says it's about what their readers prefer but really it's about ad revenue and I think they could think outside the box and have a daily arts section which might bring more ad revenue from various Pittsburgh entities.

Here are the phone numbers for the Post Gazette major editors so your voice can be heard (instead of contacting the arts editors since they less control on overall content): David Shribman, executive editor, 412-263-1890 ,Susan Smith, managing editor, 412-263-1858, and Mary Leonard, deputy managing editor, 412-263-0443. And their email addresses are are DShribman@post-gazette.com , SSmith@post-gazette.com , MLeonard@post-gazette.com . General Customer Service if you're a regular subscriber you can call 1-800-228-NEWS (6397).

UPDATE: I've received several quick responses from PG which I appreciate but they both basically say the same thing which is that readers prefer the Weekend Mag section on Thursday to plan ahead but that doesn't address the need to have an Arts section every day.

Feel free to use the email content I sent out below:

"I wanted to make my voice heard as today's Friday Feb 8, 2008 Post Gazette paper has no mention of any Pittsburgh art event. Friday is arguably the biggest day of the week as far as adults going out and there's no mention of any of the hundred art events going on tonight. Having events listed online just doesn't make as much of an impact. I realize the Post Gazette has their Weekend Mag section in the Thursday paper but one section a week to me says it's not that important. Space contraints are no excuse when one more page can be added to a relatively small Friday paper. And the Arts section which should be there every day usually turns into a Mag and Movies section about non-Pittsburgh events.I hope in the future PG can make a daily effort in their paper to support Pittsburgh artists and let art patrons know what's going on in the city. Thank you."

Rick Byerly

Pittsburgh Art Galleries Blog

pittsburgh galleries is a project from
pittsburgh photographer rick byerly, http://www.uniquetake.com

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