The role of reviewers in today's society has been further degraded today by the U.K.'s Independent on Sunday newspaper, which has--our colleague Norman Lebrecht reports at his Slipped Disc blog--just made almost all of its critics redundant. It will, he says, instead run a digest of arts reviews.
Sad news for a society in which culture is--or should be--tracked and contextualized by its reviewers. And one in which the critic's job is also there to safeguard the pursuit of excellence in art. And so the (so-called) Sindy follows various regional U.S. newspapers in showing its critics the door, or else putting them on freelance contracts.
The actions of newspapers like the Independent on Sunday (if this report is true) close down the cultural conversation. This may of course be part of a wider strategy--espoused by the media groups's editor-in-chief on BBC Radio 4 recently--to further integrate the Independent with its Sunday sister (or rather, the other way around it seems). But for that to work like, say, the New York Times, the papers should be formally merged and the remaining reviewers given extra work to cover the extra space. Which doesn't sound like it's on the cards.
We firmly believe that arts lovers will stop buying a paper that doesn't see reviews coverage as important. And so culture's loss is, well, nobody's gain.
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