Classical Music Blog - Print Journalism and Blogs

Print Journalism and Blogs

In November 2006, the British arts journalist and author Norman Lebrecht devoted his weekly column in the Evening Standard to the proliferation of classical music blogs but attacked the accuracy of much of their reporting, describing them as "opinion-rich and info-poor". Still, that did not keep him from concluding that "until bloggers deliver hard facts paid for newspapers will continue to set the standard as the only show in town".

Lebrecht launched his own blog, Slipped Disc, soon thereafter. Several professional critics and journalists specializing in classical music had already preceded him with independent blogs in addition to their paid work for the print media. These include Alex Ross, of The New Yorker (The Rest is Noise), Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle (On a Pacific Aisle), and Jessica Duchen of The Independent (Jessica Duchen's Classical Music Blog).

In addition to independent blogs by music journalists, print publications and radio stations are increasingly adding classical music blogs to their web sites, allowing their journalists more space to cover stories than would be possible in the print editions or on-air. Examples include Anthony Tommasini's blog at the New York Times, Janelle Gelfand's at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Jens F. Laurson's blog for the Washington, D.C classical radio station WETA., and Scott Foglesong's blog for the San Francisco Examiner.

Despite criticism and caution from the side of some professionals, classical music blogging has become viable because it fills a gap that print journalism has left open. Writing about Ionarts, a classical music blog in Washington, D.C., Marc Fisher of the Washington Post points out that "gradually, as such things happen, word spread about a place where music fans could find serious criticism and coverage of concerts and recitals too small or obscure to capture the attention of the Post's Style section." According to Ionarts blogger, Charles T. Downey, "With the unlimited space of a blog and a more specialized audience, there were things we could cover that the Post wouldn't or couldn't."