| Is it time to do away with the overnight review? |
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Panelists at the AASFE convention said not quite yet, but it's not
sacrosanct, and papers should continue to come up with new approaches.
The survival of the overnight review LAS VEGAS-- Is it time to do away with the overnight review? Not quite yet, said panelists Friday at the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors convention in Las Vegas. "Yes, the review is important, but it's not sacrosanct. It's part of what we do to cover the arts, but it shouldn't be all we do," said David Weigand, arts editor at the San Francisco Chronicle. A singular focus on reviews has kept newspapers from coming up with new approaches, he said. "Arts has been stuck in an advance-review cycle," said Chris Lavin, senior editor of special sections for the San Diego Union-Tribune. At most papers, early deadlines make getting reviews into the features sections difficult, but the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel came up with an alternative. It created Encore, a page in the local section dedicated to overnight reviews, said pop music critic Gemma Tarlach. The page also includes newsy entertainment tidbits. "It's a great way to bring younger readers into the paper," she said. Tarlach also has done "riff by riff" reviews, including one of a recent Bruce Springsteen concert. Much like a sports announcer's play-by-play commentary, Tarlach filed updates from the concert every few minutes for the paper's Web site, so surfers could follow the set changes online. Another staffer wrote the traditional print review of the concert. Deviating from the norm isn't without its critics. In San Diego, where quirky Q&As (Does your piano have a nickname?) have replaced the standard advance for a musician, some readers were "put off by the human element, the lack of exegesis," Lavin said. Most of the noise is made by arts groups that feel entitled to an advance and a review, said fine arts editor Jeff Weinstein of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I tell them, 'We're under the same pressures you are, audiences are leaving us, give us some story ideas.' " And if you're still asked to review a boring ballet, Lavin suggested this: "The Nancy Reagan answer is a good one." Just say no. --------------------Wendi is the arts editor at the Charlotte Observer. She attended the AASFE convention as a diversity fellow. |