Want press? Write about them.

Melodie Bahan's article Don't review this seems to have struck a nerve with the local media. Minneapolis-St. Paul magazine mentions it here. Secrets of the City, which is what has became of The Rake magazine and the early-online, web forum mnspeak.com brings it up here. The biggest bang appears to be on the nonprofit, online daily Minnpost where David Brauer reports on the story three times on his Braublog on the local media. Here first, then with an extended interview with Strib arts editor Claude Peck here, and finally getting more comment from Melodie here. If you read the comments -- which you should to get a sense of the opinion of some local media types -- be warned that the comments are pretty defensive and ugly, or annoying, in the beginning. As the threads move along, though, there are some points worth considering. My own comment is somewhere in the thread on the second article. One of my points is that this is the beginning of a conversation, not the definitive statement. How would you feel if the daily newspapers ran less reviews but more in-depth journalism? Is there a type of journalism we're not seeing that would engage audiences better? Can you articulate what that would be? There's got to be something between short review and profiles that isn't just gossip, right? Can you describe it? Does the performing arts community give the press too much credit and/or power in the first place? Send us your thoughts, and we'll happily compile them for all the world to see -- or at least the new world that has been checking out our website since these stories were published (subtext: hello, local media types). One lesson I've learned: The next play I write should be about the media. It's my best bet for getting the kind of hyper-ventilating press coverage I've always fantasized about.