Barry Johnson is anxious to launch the Oregon Arts Watch website in June. He considers the 10-month “gestation period,” as he put it, necessary to launch with the membership model he and his colleague envisioned. Arts organizations have agreed to pay the site a per-member fee to give them a subscription to the site.
“We’ve done a lot of planning and negotiating, but the start-up will generate a lot of answers and new problems,” he said.
Launching the Partnerships
Eleven Portland-area arts organizations have agreed to be partners in the site’s first year. In exchange for a fee of $1 or $2 per member, the organizations will provide their subscribers free access to the website’s comprehensive arts coverage.
By receiving the eNewsletter, the members will not only access the site, but also receive ticket deals from the arts groups and invitations to live events held by OAW, including panel discussions, lectures, demonstrations and onstage interviews.
One of the challenges for Johnson, however, is figuring out exactly how much revenue the arts organizations will bring in, partly because the groups do not know how many members they will have for the 2011-2012 season. He anticipates the amount will be $40,000.
For additional revenue, Johnson has reached a basic agreement with a company to sell advertisements for the site. OAW will also syndicate content, including to The Oregonian, Oregon Public Broadcasting and TravelPortland’s website and publications.
Content Plans
Johnson describes this audience as the “arts omnivores” and points to studies that indicate these people attend several events a month and don’t confine themselves to one specific arts area. Portland is also ranked #3 nationally in per-capita attendance at arts events of all kinds.
Seven practicing arts journalists make up the site’s journalism committee that has met to discuss a coverage strategy to reach this particular crowd.
“We see ourselves as supplemental,” he said. “We won’t duplicate the work of existing critics and journalists by doing overnight reviews or doing announcement stories.” Instead, the site will link to those and focus on news, feature stories, essays and more “on-the-ground” reporting than he believes local media currently provide.
Next Steps
As development on the website continues, Johnson is also tackling back-office tasks, such as applying for tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) and settling on bookkeeping procedures. He is also focused on the mechanics of the membership operation. He notes that while the marketing departments of the partner organizations will help a great deal, “we need to develop our own marketing strategy without a lot of capitol to invest.”
In addition, he keeps his eyes trained well into Year Two of Oregon Arts Watch. He’s considering fundraising plans for future growth.
“We’ll see if that front-end time investment generates the money we’ll need to keep the project going,” Johnson said. He’s hoping for positive reviews.
