Classical Life

Just to be clear, it’s virtually impossible to make a living as a freelance journalist, even harder as a freelance music critic.

The pay per article is too low. The self-employment tax is too high. You don’t have health care or benefits.

I’ve had experience going down this road. For 11 years in the 1980s and 90s, I worked full and half-time in the University Research Library at UCLA while freelancing as a music critic first for the Herald Examiner and then for the L.A. Times. At the Times I was their workhorse, and only ever managed to match my half-time UCLA salary once or twice. I got my healthcare at UCLA too. …

Which is not to say I don’t appreciate the offers to freelance I’ve received. I do very much! …

Newspapers (and by that I mean both online and print versions) have done an extraordinarily poor job of chronicling their own decline and demise. …

I don’t know how many clicks the lark I mentioned in a previous post accumulated, but I would bet plenty. It was all over Twitter. …

Lots of support still pouring in, and I thank every one of you. …

“Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.” — Samuel Johnson

See previous posts for backstory.

My new email address is timothymangan5@gmail.com.

I apologize for not answering all emails, Facebook messages, comments, etc. I am hugely boosted by your support, and thankful too. Do know that I have read everything.

Arts writing should be put on the same basis as that which it reports on and critiques. Right now, arts writers write about the non-profit world for for-profit publications. And yet … for-profit publications ought to figure out a way to do it too.

Finally, Rick Stein of Arts Orange County wrote my former newspaper a letter of protest.

Some thoughts, none profound.

The outpouring of support has been kind of overwhelming, certainly flattering and a much needed boost. I thank you all more than I can say. I should get laid off more often. And here I thought everyone hated music critics.

Many commenters want to see my layoff as another nail in the coffin of our culture. While there is some truth to that, I think there is something simpler going on, a structural problem.

There are probably as many, or more, readers of classical music criticism today as there ever was. But previously, music criticism survived as part of a printed newspaper, which was predicated on the “bundle” model, just like 500-channel cable. All the topics in the paper supported the others — from the bridge column to sports, from hard news to the funny pages — and all boats floated higher for it. No topic had to survive on its own. The paper was a community, even a team of rivals.

But as newspapers have moved online, a different model has been adopted. Now, every topic has to survive on its own, because online readers don’t generally read the paper as a bundle. They pick and choose topics, from different publications, all over the internet. Each topic is an island. Think of it as a “streaming” model. What’s more, now newspapers can see exactly how many readers click on a story, and they see that music criticism has a relatively small online readership, though, as said, probably not that different in terms of numbers than it ever had.

The tone of eulogy in many of the comments I’ve read is understandable, but disconcerting and depressing. I’m still here and I have some ideas. Let’s see what happens. Let’s not let the bad guys win.

Lastly, the “blockhead” quote from yesterday was from Samuel Johnson.  You can look it up … online.

See previous post for the backstory.

Three things.

I was on my way to Gustavo Dudamel’s debut at L.A. Opera on Friday when I was laid off. I could have still gone and reviewed it here (for free) but as you will understand I didn’t feel up to it. And no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

I was not fired for cause (as the lawyers say) or for the quality of my work. In fact, I was told the quality of my work had nothing to do with it. Just need to make that clear.

The paper retains at least two staff writers who review pop concerts and write about pop culture, so I’d say there’s a bit of reverse elitism going on here. I was not given the chance to write about other subjects, as when I wrote that laff fest celebrity column known as People for two years.

OK, four things. I’ve worked at the paper a little short of 18 years and was given two weeks severance. I’m looking for a lawyer who will work pro bono or for a small fee to help me get some more severance.

Long Live Music Criticism!