Web Site Basics Redux: SFS, I'm Looking at You.

Compose-Your-Own went on sale at San Francisco Symphony today, meaning that as soon as single tickets go on sale, I can go through the frustration of:

1. Ordering tickets to three programs, which SFS will assign to me.
2. Waiting overnight.
3. Now that I'm an official subscriber, ordering single tickets and getting to choose the exact locations.

This could be fixed, though SFS hasn't done it yet. It shouldn't even be that hard.

But that's not what this is about.

The layout for Compose-Your-Own's web page is good; it's a single page listing all programs and dates. However, without clicking through to the individual concerts, all you can tell about the programming is what a copywriter wants you to know. "Dutoit conducts Faure's Requiem," for example. You can't tell that Symphony of Psalms (Stravinsky) and the rarely-heard Litanies of the Black Virgin (Poulenc) are also on the program.

You can't tell, and you're not always told, who the soloists are for a given program. For instance, if you click "Britten: Bychkov conducts War Requiem," you're told there's a "marvelous cast of soloists," but not their identities!

I happen to know that one of them must be Christine Brewer, because I recognize the photographic icon of her, but does everybody?

Folks, this is pure Web Site Stupidity 101. Alex Ross and I have complained about this kind of crap for several years now. Please make it as easy as possible for patrons to see full information about your concerts. Don't make people click through, and don't omit important concert information! I mean, you do want people to buy tickets, right?

Is it Autumn in Los Angeles?

In the last 24 hours, I've received the following email:

• From LA Opera, information about Don Giovanni, which opens September 22 and runs through October 14
• From the Los Angeles Philharmonic, information about Aaron Neville's Christmas show, which will be presented at Disney Hall on December 18

Guys, I believe in planning ahead, so thank you....on the other hand, WTF?

Think Before Clicking Send

I bow to no one in my love of Bluebeard's Castle, and it remains to be seen just how many performances of it I will attend next week. But San Francisco Symphony might consider the message they're conveying with their suggested Father's Day present:

Father's Day Gift to the Symphony:

MTT conducts Bartók's
Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Dear Ms. Hirsch,

Give your dad a Father's Day gift he'll remember—an evening of music, food, and thrills at the San Francisco Symphony's performance of Duke Bluebeard's Castle! Before (or after) the performance enjoy acomplimentary appetizer or glass of wine* at 03 Bistro and Lounge, then head over to Davies Symphony Hall, just two blocks away, for the thrilling semi-staged performance of Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

Buy a full price ticket to the concert, then present your ticket at 03 Bistro and Lounge to recieve a complimentary glass of wine with purchase of an appetizer, or a complimentary appetizer with purchase of an entrée. Afterwards, head over to Davies Symphony Hall, just two blocks away, for the thrilling semi-staged performance of Duke Bluebeard's Castle.

The mysterious, psychological drama takes audiences on an eerie journey of the human subconscious. Specially designed multi-media projections, staging, and English captions help tell the tale of Duke Bluebeard's inquisitive new wife Judith, as she searches behind the seven doors of Bluebeard's castle to find hidden chambers, bloody weapons, and, eventually, Bluebeard's former wives! Watch a video on the making of the innovative set for the semi-staged performances.

Don't miss out on this exclusive San Francisco Symphony and 03 Bistro and Lounge offer. Buy now.

Note

I have continuously updated the list of responses to the Met/ON fiasco at my first posting; it's quite long now.

UPDATE: May 27. Still adding to the list!

A Remaining Question

If you read through the comments at the NY Times on either of the two articles about ONGate and over at Anne Midgette's blog posting, you'll see a couple of thoughts surfacing with some regularity:

• There's an inherent conflict of interest when somebody at ON reviews the Met.
• The Met is paying ON's bills and shouldn't have to deal with critics from within.

Anne herself makes the point that the second of the above is just wrong: the Metropolitan Opera Guild, which publishes ON, is a fundraiser for the Met. It contributes money to the Met, rather than taking money from the Met.

Even more interestingly, the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the Metropolitan Opera Association are two separate legal entities. 

• Metropolitan Opera Guild. CEO Richard J. Miller, Board Chairman Winthrop Rutherfurd, Jr. The Board has a number of well-known members, including retired singers such as Rise Stevens, Martina Arroyo, and Frederica von Stade. Total employees: 44 full- and part-time. Total revenue for the last year reported: around $12 million
• Metropolitan Opera Association. General Manager Peter Gelb. Board Chair Ann Ziff (she is on the Guild Board of Directors). Total employees: around 860, according to the Met web site. Total revenue for the last year I can find: around $271 million, a large multiple of the Met Guild's revenue.

Given this, why does Peter Gelb get to boss Opera News around? 

Information in the bullets above from GuideStar, except where I note otherwise. The Met's 990 is long and interesting. Yes, anyone can register and use GuideStar's resources.

For a Giggle or Two...

Twitter users might follow @FakePeterGelb, an account that seems to have sprung up in the last 12 hours or so.

Shooting the Messenger

Why, it was only the other day that I said that all publicity is not good publicity, contrary to the old saw. And here comes Peter Gelb, proving me right again:

Opera News, 76 years old and one of the leading classical music magazines in the country, said on Monday that it would stop reviewing the Metropolitan Opera, a policy prompted by the Met’s dissatisfaction over negative critiques. 

[several paragraphs deleted] 

“As of the June 2012 issue, Opera News is not reviewing Metropolitan Opera productions,” F. Paul Driscoll, the magazine’s editor in chief, said in a terse telephone interview. He declined to elaborate but acknowledged that no other opera company had been banished from its pages.

Translation: Peter Gelb's displeasure over the negative Ring reviews and some some comments by Brian Kellow mean that Opera News's 100,000 subscribers won't get to read reviews of Met productions in ON. Instead, they'll have to rely on the NY Times, the WSJ, the New Yorker, the Daily News, and, of course, the blogosphere.

Dear Peter, when messengers from all over deliver the same message, perhaps it's time to ponder that message a bit.

See also (in the order in which I found them, more or less):

• Alex Ross on his blog and an article mincing no words on TNY's web site
• La Cieca and her follow-up
• Brian at Out West Arts, who discusses the news cycle in a follow-up posting
• Superconductor
• Oboeinsight
• Musical Toronto
• Slipped Disc (Lebrecht gets some kind of award for the best headline). Lebrecht suggests a boycott on reviewing the Met.
• Philip Kennicott
• Terry Teachout (former ON reviewer!)
• "Lenny Abramov," writing at Parterre Box (see  Zerbinetta for some commentary on this piece)
• Tim Mangan
• Anne Midgette
• David Scott Marley
• Zerbinetta
• Alex Wellsung
• Justin Davidson
• John Marcher, late but with a defense of the Met Ring. (I thought SFO's Siegfried far superior to the Met's.)
• William Madison, ON reviewer and former editor of the opera review section
• ....and the right Google Blogsearch search gets you even more hits.

Amazing Examples of PR Stupidity

As I've noted before, Bay Area musical organizations have been remarkably generous and thoughtful about extending press tickets to members of the musical blogosphere. I'm grateful for that; I know my fellow bloggers are grateful; I want to express my thanks to all the organizations and publicists who've invited me to their concerts and performances. You're the best.

Unfortunately, not all PR folks and organizations are quite as professional and enlightened in dealing with bloggers and others who write primarily for web publications. I learned yesterday that the publicists for a number of Bay Area theater companies managed to shoot themselves in the foot rather nicely this week. They sent email around to various critics - I do not know how many - telling them that to obtain comp tickets in the future, the critics would have to provide web analytics demonstrating their readership.

Among the critics who received this missive was Janos Gereben, former arts editor of the Oakland Post (for two decades), former music editor of the Mercury News, the Seattle Times, and regular contributor to numerous local publications for many years now, including the SF Examiner and SF Classical Voice.

Of all people to make threats to....it's obvious that the organizations represented by the email hadn't stopped to consider a few points.

• WTF, you're asking Janos to provide web stats? You don't know and trust his work after 40 years on the local scene?
• Believe it or not, not everyone published on the web has access to blogstats. If you have your own blog, yes, you have access, depending on the platform and depending on whether you have enabled an analytics program on your blog. However, if you think that I can get the analytics for SFCV or my own reviews on SFCV, please enjoy watching me fall on the floor laughing.
• All publicity is not actually good publicity, and I'm happy to provide a little bad publicity for the publicists whose names appeared on the email: Charles Zukow and Kevin Kopjak, Terence Keane, Erin Garcia, \ Marilyn Langbehn, Sasha Hnatkovich, Erica Lewis-Finein, Carla Befera, on behalf of various theatrical organizations, all of whose names the readers of this blog would undoubtedly know.
• Not all of your shows are sellouts. You can, in fact, afford to give away tickets to 10 or 20 reviewers. Theatrical runs are not one-shot or, usually, even eight-shot gigs. If you don't want to put everybody on opening night, spread 'em out over the first two or three shows.
• You'd rather lose reviews than give tickets to the wrong people. BZZZZT. That is shooting yourself in the foot.

Here's the most galling paragraph from the email that was sent around:

 Please don’t fret about this! The report you send will not automatically qualify or disqualify you for attendance at any theater. Each of our companies retains the right to set its own policies with regard to press passes, and this report is only one of many factors we consider when dealing with reviewers. The traffic data it provides will simply allow us to make a fair and informed comparison of the many opportunities offered to us for online coverage – and to clearly explain those opportunities to leaders at our theaters who are understandably concerned about the number of complimentary tickets we distribute.

Translation: we are making this demand en masse, but really, this email is meaningless, because each individual organization will be making its own decisions. Honestly, guys: don't you read the people you emailed this to? Don't you know their work and whether they're good reviewers? That might actually be more important than raw statistics.

Overall, you'll get more bad than good out of this, including a refusal from Janos - and possibly others - to cover the organizations as long as these demands are maintained. 

In closing, if anyone's curious about my blogstats, you should know that they're pretty wimpy compared to, say, La Cieca's up-to-18,000 per day page views. Interpreting analytics reports is always tricky, so I'll just leave it at this: I have about 2200 unique visitors per month and something between 5500 and 7000 page views per month.

Don't Do This

The LAPO sends along email ostensibly containing the Hollywood Bowl 2012 season announcement. However, what's in the mail is a pretty graphic and a link. Click the link and you're taken to a pretty web site, where if you click the correct link, a 23-page PDF downloads.

Folks, just don't do this. Don't make people click twice just to download your press release. Paste the essentials - say, five pages of essentials - into the email, with a "more details" link that goes directly to an HTML page.

P. S. This is why I haven't actually read the press release yet.

ROH Comes to its Senses

They've apologized very gracefully to Intermezzo.

Not All Publicity is Good.

And if you're a big opera house, try not to turn good publicity into bad.

Putting it another way, Intermezzo has been blogging about opera in London and around Europe for a few years now, and has published many interesting and informative reviews of productions and performances at the Royal Opera House.

Intermezzo got email from the ROH asking her to take down all photos included in her postings that are "referenced to performances at the ROH." In response, she took down all of her ROH postings. She also published the correspondence she received, and her replies. (Do follow that link!)

Look at it this way: the ROH got a lot of good, free publicity from someone who was paying for tickets. Their action has resulted in the loss of that publicity and, I bet, any future publicity.

Way to go, ROH!

One More Publicity Basic

An update to the ever-popular Publicity Basics posting -

The next time your organization is thinking of sending out a mass mailing, check what it looks like on a few popular mobile phones: iPhone, the Android model of your choice (in a browser AND the native Gmail client), Blackberry, etc.

If the user has to scroll all over the place to read your mail, change the format. This happens most commonly on my Android phone with HTML email that uses fixed-width columns for formatting.

If you're sending out Word documents or PDFs, your important news won't necessarily get read on a mobile phone. Most mobile phones have limited or no support for those formats.

Once again: plain text and rich text are the safest formats for emailing publicity info. Prettiness is less important than getting read. Don't make people open another application to read your press release; don't make them click a link to find vital information; don't make them scroll.

I'm going to add one more good reason for this: plain and rich text are friendly formats for people who use screen readers.

Left Hand, Meet Right Hand, BBC Edition

Last week, I wrote about an upcoming theater broadcast of the Last Night of the Proms. It occurred to me that perhaps there were other broadcast locations in the U.S., so I started to do some research. What followed was...well...Here's what happened.

1. I started by looking at the Proms web site, where I couldn't find anything about the dates and times of the broadcasts, though I did find a press release about the broadcast. If you read the press release, you'll see that there are no dates or locations listed.
2. I looked for a Contact Us page with press contact information, but never found it.
3. I did find a Contact Us page with a form on it, which I filled out with my query. I identified myself as an Oakland-based music journalist and blogger.
4. A member of the Proms press office responded on their next business day. This was fine; I sent my query long after London closing hours.
5. However, she told me the Proms press office didn't know anything about the scheduling of the broadcast - BBC Worldwide handles such events, you see. Her email included a list of the U.S. and London offices for BBC Worldwide, with phone numbers and street addresses for each.
6. In reply, I asked if there were email addresses for any of the offices.
7. She was able to provide one email address.
8. I phoned the Hollywood, CA office of BBC Worldwide. The person answering the phone didn't know what the Proms were. She transferred me to someone she thought might know. That person sounded like a deer in the headlights and suggested I try the NYC office.
9. I phoned the NYC office, where the person I spoke to knew what the Proms were, but didn't know anything about U.S. broadcasts. She suggested I talk to someone else.
10. I phoned the other person and left a phone message asking her to call me back. This was on Thursday, September 2. I haven't heard back yet, but that's okay; very possibly she stretched her three-day weekend to four days.
11. Simultaneously, I phoned the Elmwood Theater in CA, where a very nice person in the business office suggested I send email, which the right person would respond to.
12. I did this and got a timely response from the right person. She told me she knew of the Berkeley and Santa Rosa Rialto Theaters showings, plus one in Los Angeles. She knew who the U.S. distributor was and told me that name. She also knew that there are many Canadian venues, which I had discovered independently. (I can't recall exactly when I tried using Google, finding nothing useful about the United State, but turning up the Canadian list.)
13. This morning I found email from my original contact at the Proms press office, confirming that there are only three U.S. venues this year. (The third is Mann Chinese Theater in Hollywood.) Evidently, there was interest from other theaters and chains, but scheduling issues....very likely the Last Night will be more widely broadcast in the states next year.

The BBC has had sundry notorious failures in the past. There was the year they had to ask the fan base for home copies of some episodes of Dr. Who, the wildly popular TV series. The Beeb had somehow lost or erased those episodes. There are the many opera and other musical broadcasts recorded and then trashed - I know of a famous collector who swooped down on the BBC office when one of these purges was taking place, rescuing a few priceless items from oblivion.

I can't think of any publicity principle more central than "Make it easy for people to find out when and where your events are happening." The Proms press office should not be the last to have accurate information about where their most famous single event is being telecast worldwide, and it should be easy to find that information with a simple web search. Instead...well, see the above.

Further Update to Don't Be Stupid

Just wanted to add two more bullet points, these for performing arts organizations:

• DO keep your web site up to date. It does not inspire confidence when I visit the News page on your web site and find that you haven't updated it since the fall of 2007.
• DO answer email sent to the Contact Us address in some reasonable amount of time. The same day you receive the mail would be best. Let it go more than 36 hours and you start to look unprofessional. (Note: Guilty as charged. I have an embarrassing mail queue.)
  

Updates to Don't Be Stupid

I added a couple of points to a previous posting.

Also, read Drew McManus's related posting. (Poignant? :)

Don't Be Stupid

I had an email discussion with Drew McManus recently about some of the...less effective email I've gotten from publicists over the last few months. He suggested putting together a list of do's and don'ts for publicists who are dealing with new media. My initial response was "don't be stupid," which really means "Be professional." The guidelines below are not really specific to new media; I believe they apply whether you're sending publicity to the NY Times or me.

• DO make the subject line something meaningful. I almost trashed email recently that had the subject line "YOU GO GIRL!!" because it looked like spam to me. I stopped to take a look and found that it contained important news. "ICE Founder and Flutist Claire Chase Wins Important Competition" would have gotten my attention real fast.
• DO put the most critical information (dates, times, works, performers, venue) someplace easy to locate. Right at the top is good; if you send out many press releases, put this information in the same place every time, whether at the top or bottom. Just make it easy to find.
  
• DO use blind carbon copy. That is, don't open-copy your mailing list. Some high-profile individuals do not want their personal email addresses circulating.
• DON'T write a fake personal note as part of the email. You know what I mean: "Hey...I was just reading your blog and thought this might interest you." I can't stand those, and while I might be more sensitive than most to fakery, or email that looks fake, I assure you that being professionally impersonal is much, much better than anything with a whiff of the fake about it. "Dear Media Professional" is fine; no cover note at all is fine. Fake friendliness is out, because you don't know who will be rubbed the wrong way by it.
• DO paste the full text of the press release into the email or provide a link to a web page. DO NOT attach Word or PDF documents. You don't know who has Acrobat Reader or the right Word version installed, and the current Word format is not backward compatible with older versions.
• DO include the full cast if there's an opera in your announcement or the singers' names if it's an orchestral work with vocal parts. I just received a Spoleto Festival USA announcement that mentions performances of Louise with only the soprano's name, and performances of Das Lied von der Erde without either of the singers' names. I am certain that the Festival has singers under contract for performances that are taking place in six months.
• DO consider writing informal, entertaining, or humorous press releases, but be extremely careful with your tone. Humor varies around the world, and be especially careful if you're addressing the press release to individuals in different countries.
• DO get the details right when the email is personalized. I recently received email that included "I know you're in Germany, but your readership is probably international." The sentiment is a good one; the mistake was evidently an honest one, but I stopped reading right there.
• DO make sure the press release is relevant to the people you're emailing. I am happy to read press releases for events all over the world, but not everyone is.
• DO proofread what you're sending out. Make sure performer names, dates, times, locations, and ticket prices are correct and easy to find. Use that spelling checker. Have someone check your grammar if it's not your strong suit.
• DO use 10 or 12 point type. Twenty-odd years into the digital age, I feel like I shouldn't have to say this any more, but since I recently received a print document where the point size went down to 6 and maybe 4 point type.... That's unreadable without a magnifying glass.
• DO make it easy for people to find the information they want. This means, DON'T use an overly complicated or fussy layout, or more than 2 fonts in one document. Again, 20 years into the digital age...just don't do anything that reduces readability.
  
• DON'T even think about posting press releases in the comments section of a blog. I've seen this happen a few times, on my blog and others' blogs. I immediately delete such comments as spam. For one thing, they're almost always irrelevant to the blog entry where they've been posted. For another, it's rude and random behavior. For yet another, the press release will be seen ONLY by people subscribed to comments to that blog entry! Lastly, it pisses people off, which doesn't do your client any good. If you've managed to find my blog, look for the Email Me link and use that mailing address.

To close with a couple of positives: whether you're a PR pro or an amateur like me (I've handled publicity for a couple of small organizations), you'll find tons of useful information at Amanda Ameer's blog, Life's a Pitch. And if you want to see a few examples of really good press releases, try those issued by San Francisco Opera or by publicist Louise Barder, who does a great job of providing the right information the right way at the right time.

Dear Artist or Publicist

As I've said previously, I welcome email from artists and publicists. But it's best if the email isn't obviously going to a blind-copied mailing list while pretending to be personal. For instance:

Hi there,

I've been reading your blog for some time and am a big fan. It's great to have fellow opera aficionados out there sharing their thoughts on the opera world!

I know you're busy and all, but I prefer mass mailings that are honest about it.

Dear Publicists:

A couple of weeks back, I put up a posting that corrected a previous, erroneous posting about a fine Bay Area organization. Within the last hour, someone who will go nameless wrote a comment to that posting, reading as follows:

Have you ever heard of classical [instrument deleted] [musician's name deleted]? He's a brilliant artist. If you aren't familiar with who he is, he has this organization: [deleted] that donates music lessons and instruments to kids in need. He also plays around New York City... I found his schedule online.

I can get more information on him if you are interested. Oh! I almost forgot, I also found out that he has these [recently organized salons] where you can actually go over to his place and listen to a bunch of people try out their piano music ( singing, violin, etc) on one other.

This is obvious spam. It had nothing to do with the original posting. I also hate the fake tone. I therefore deleted it.

If you'd like me to know about an artist you represent in some way, as agent or publicist, please send me email. I read the email I receive; I sometimes respond by email or put something on this blog. (My thanks to those of you who email me press releases and other info; I appreciate it.)

Do not post random comments on my blog. They are rude, and they're evidence that you're not bothering to read me or see if the comment is in any way relevant to my blog posting. Worst of all, they don't do the artists you're promoting any good at all, because they piss me off. I will delete such spam comments immediately.