Julia Michalska is the聽Deputy Web Editor at聽The Art Newspaper,聽and is a speaker at聽Future Now: The Aesthetica Art Prize Symposium, running 26-27 May at York St John University. Michalska is a panelist in Session 10:聽The Permanence of Print: Part II聽and joins聽Lee Taylor, Flux; Susanna Davies-Crook, Journalist & Contributing Editor, Dazed & Confused, Sleek, and聽Thisistomorrow,聽and Kate Simpson, Aesthetica for a discussion on print in today’s digital world. This session asks,聽what is the future for independent publishing and the art press at large?We speak to Michalska ahead of the event.
A: This session will focus on the impact of technology on independent publishing and the art press at large. In your opinion, what is the future of the circulation of newspapers and magazines that we enjoy today?
JM: If you mean print circulation, it will probably continue to decline as technology provides the reader with more comfortable ways of consuming content. But brand loyalty and a high subscriber base will keep certain stable titles profitable. If you mean circulation in general, then as long as a newspaper or magazine can adapt to the changes, it will see its circulation rise as technology eliminates geographical limitations and issues of scale. But with this digital freedom of content,聽there will be a lot more to choose from so readers become more picky and it will become harder to get their attention.
A: The Art Newspaper is sistered with five other newspapers worldwide, including Il Giornale dell鈥橝rte based in Turin, Italy and The Art Newspaper Russia. To what extent would you say that the impact of technology on print newspapers is a worldwide phenomenon?
JM: Yes, we see it as a global phenomenon. Two of our sister publications, The Art Newspaper China and The Art Newspaper Russia, are very young and digital was at their core from the start. Technology has greatly helped our editorial teams across offices work together more effectively.聽We regularly share content with our sister publications using shared servers and cloud drives, we are able to translate content from our sister papers the same day the stories are published and technology allows our writers and editors to work closely聽despite the separation of time zones and continents. Even our weekly editorial meeting between the London and New York offices is run on Skype.
A: The imminent introduction of 5G and the ever evolving iPhone range are two of the largest threats faced by print newspapers today. How are publications like The Art Newspaper adapting in order to accommodate this?
闯惭:听We no longer see digital platforms as a way of simply promoting our print stories. We are shifting towards a daily news service that then helps us populate our website and social media channels. We are recruiting journalists who are used to writing daily web items and are getting our writers used to a daily rather than monthly production cycle.聽In regards to the聽iPhone, we noticed that聽the majority of our readers accessed our web articles through their desktops last year. This聽year, more people are reading The Art Newspaper聽through their mobiles than their desktops. So we have developed an app to cater to this mobile audience, our website is mobile friendly and we鈥檙e available on Apple News. iPhone and other mobile devices are just another platform through which readers consume news,聽I聽wouldn鈥檛 see them as a threat but an opportunity to聽reach a wider audience.
A: Visitor Figures 2015 was a project undertaken by The Art Newspaper in March 2016, focusing on global exhibition and museum attendance numbers and how galleries and museums can, and have, boosted their number of visitors. What were the general findings of this research?
JM:聽One major finding is that when museums expand鈥攅specially if their extensions were designed by starchitects鈥攖hey see their attendance rise significantly faster than museums that do not. But this could be a consequence rather than a motivation. Big names are important too. Tate Modern saw its attendance figures drop last year because it staged fewer shows on blockbuster names and more on聽critically-acclaimed聽but lesser-known artists.聽鈥淓xternalities鈥, such as a big parade outside your doorstep,聽also have a negative effect on attendance figures.
A: Many current artists and exhibitions are featured in your Shows & Events online section. Are there any in particular that you would recommend, or that we should look out for in the coming months?
JM: I would like to see: Christo鈥檚 floating peers on Lake Iseo in Italy, Picasso Sculptures at the Picasso Museum in Paris, Alex Katz at the Serpentine, William Eggleston at the National Portrait Gallery, Georgia O鈥橩eeffe at Tate Modern (and its new extension), Manifesta, Bosch at the Prado and Edmund de Waal鈥檚 show at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which he is curating.
Hear Michalska at Future Now,聽Session 10:聽The Permanence of Print: Part II,聽13:00 鈥 14:15, 27 May, De Grey 125, York St John University.
Book your Pass and Sessions here:聽
Travel to Future Now: The Aesthetica Art Prize Symposium in York with .
Credits
1. Daniel Rich,聽Amazon Books聽(2014).
