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As CNN Challenges the AP ...
... will arts coverage in general and arts criticism in particular be left behind? This is what I kept wondering as I read the New York Times piece today on CNN's new wire service.
Every time a newspaper I've worked for has considered cutting a wire service, fear has struck the arts staff. Newspaper managers are unlikely to do without a service that gives them national, international, sports, and business coverage, and CNN surely knows that. No doubt the network comprehends the indispensability of entertainment coverage as well; a recent ad for CNN Wire news editors seeks, among others, a "Los Angeles-based news editor, focusing on entertainment news." But arts coverage has never been a TV-news strong suit, and it's grown weaker and weaker in recent years. Arts criticism on TV is nearly nonexistent.
Unlikely as it is that CNN will grasp the importance of substantial coverage of the arts -- which both the AP, particularly in books and theater, and Bloomberg News, particularly in visual art, do offer -- it may be even less likely that those who call the shots at newspapers will demand it.
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