Hendersonville Times-News cuts arts column, employee pay, plans to move copy desk

The New York Times Co., owner of the Hendersonville Times-News, recently announced that employees at its regional newspapers such as the Hooterville paper would see a 2.5 percent pay cut. Meantime, the Hendo paper is working on a plan to move its copy desk to its sister paper in Spartanburg, S.C. And today, news comes that the Times-News is cutting its Arts Spectrum column:

Two weeks ago, I was informed that for budgetary reasons the Times-News would not run my Arts Spectrum column after the end of March. It is time to celebrate what the column has accomplished in eight years, and also time to plan for the future of arts commentary for Western North Carolina.

The 423 columns that have been published in the Times-News have focused heavily on Henderson, Transylvania and Polk counties, since the newspaper considers these to be its primary area. About 60 percent of the columns were specific to cultural events, exhibits or people in those three counties. Another 15 percent covered Buncombe County and the rest of Western North Carolina.

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The reduction of arts coverage in the Times-News is part of a national trend. Newspapers are retrenching. It has been several years since the Times-News discontinued reviews of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra. The online not-for-profit Classical Voice of North Carolina (cvnc.org) is where most of my musical criticism now appears.

I will continue to publish commentary regarding the arts in Western North Carolina through a newly created blog at http://artsspectrum.blogspot.com. There are advantages to a Web-based column. Publication frequency could be more than once a week. I can expand coverage of Asheville and Buncombe County, a major arts location. Illustrations can accompany commentary on visual art. Columns can expand beyond 560 words when needed.

There are also disadvantages. I shall have to take time away from experiencing and writing about the arts in order to arrange financial sponsorship for the blog. And readers who do not regularly access the World Wide Web will no longer have my column available. We shall look into print options in the future, but for now it is au revoir and see you online at artsspectrum.blogspot.com.

Ted McIrvine can be reached at McIrvine@aol.com.