By Lori Grisham, J-Lab Intern
The support of five local arts organizations has brought Oregon Arts Watch (OAW) a few steps closer to launching. OAW, a journalism initiative aimed at covering the arts and culture scene primarily in Portland, will receive financial support from these organizations, which have agreed to donate a portion of their subscriber membership fees to support OAW’s efforts.
The initial agreements will give OAW about $35,000 a year in funding and a combined subscriber list of 22,000 people, according to Barry Johnson, OAW’s founder and a former culture reporter at The Oregonian.
In exchange for financial support, members of the arts organizations will receive OAW’s weekly e-Newsletter. “The newsletter will give links to the work of [arts] journalists wherever it appears — on the OAW website or elsewhere,” Johnson said. It will also alert readers to ticket offers and special events such as panels, lectures and public discussions around the arts.
The agreements, however, do not mean that the arts organizations will receive special coverage from OAW. “This is not a ‘pay-to-play’ idea,” Johnson said. “OAW is an independent journalism group that will make its own decisions about coverage.”
Creating relationships with the arts community is integral to a successful launch and the quality of OAW, said Johnson. “Ultimately, our members should give us a chance to establish the critical mass for the kind of conversation about arts, culture and the city that makes community more engaged and healthier than it is now,” he said.
So far the numbers look good, but they are still shy of OAW’s ultimate goal: $75,000 in sponsorships from local arts and culture groups and 25,000 individual subscribers. Johnson hopes for five more commitments from arts organizations in coming weeks. He will then take these agreements to wealthy members of the community to seek additional support. “A solid membership base will make us more likely to receive support from other sources — individual donors, corporate sponsors and foundations,” he said.
Once OAW meets funding and subscriber goals, the next step is to establish a website. They are currently bulking up their design and tech team with volunteers from Portland’s creative community. Johnson recruited them through Twitter and through mutual friends.
Seven editorial volunteers are signed up to help plot the direction of the journalism work, Johnson said. “They are journalists I have worked with or knew about before, one way or another, or have met since I left The Oregonian last year,” he said.
Once OAW begins producing content, Johnson hopes other media outlets — such as The Oregonian, Portland Monthly magazine and Oregon Public Broadcasting — will carry their work. “We are confident that many of our reports will find homes outside the website,” he said.
Participation with other news outlets will depend on their needs and OAW’s ability to fulfill them, Johnson said. “We could produce stories specifically for a publication or a regular three-minute slot of arts news and commentary for a radio or TV station,” he said. “Sometimes these relationships could be commercial and exclusive, but our principle generally is to distribute our journalism as freely and broadly as we can.”
As pieces of OAW start to come together, there is more work to be done on OAW’s marketing strategy and website design, OAW does have a general “skeleton of the idea,” Johnson said, and is moving forward with that in mind. “Each step has a multitude of negotiations and components,” he said.
