Vol. 16, No. 3 March 2012 - Carolina Arts

Editorialby Tom Starland, Editor and PublisherCOMMENTARYWhen You’re Almost In, But PeopleThink You’re Out, But You Still Might BeLast month I talked about getting ourfirst ad from the Triangle area of NC andour hopes that it was just the first of many.Well, it turns out it wasn’t really our first- way back in the late 1990s we had afew ads from that area for a short periodof time. And when I say the Triangle I’mthinking Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill orChapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh - if you likeit that way. We hadn’t had any ads fromany of those cities in over 10 years andnone since we started our new electronicversion of the paper.But it turns out maybe we did. Ireceived an e-mail from one of the artistsat the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts inHillsborough, NC, and they wanted meto know that they think of themselves aspart of the Triangle area. Hillsborough isthe county seat of Orange County, homeof Chapel Hill. Hillsborough is just a shortdrive from Chapel Hill and Durham. I’msure I’d get the same logic from folks inCarrboro, Cary and Wake Forest - thatthey’re part of the Triangle too. All are locatedin Orange, Durham or Wake Counties.But I asked in my return e-mail the$64,000 question - do the folks in Raleigh,Durham and Chapel Hill feel that Hillsboroughis part of the Triangle? That’sthe real question and knowing how somefolks are about staking out their territoryin the art world, my bet was that none ofthe big three would want to share. It’s thesame everywhere. There is never enoughpublicity, funding, or audience to satisfyeveryone so competition is fierce and noone really wants to share - unless made to.And, in some ways I don’t blame them.But, from now on, Carolina Arts willnow consider any art community in thosethree counties to be part of the Trianglearea of NC. Unless they contact us andsay they want no part of it. We’re here todo all we can for our supporters, wheneverwe can.It’s not the first time this has come up.A gallery in Fuquay-Varina, NC, asked tobe listed with galleries in Raleigh in ourgallery listings. Galleries in Davidson,NC, Cornelius, NC, and Pineville, NC,want to be listed with Charlotte, NC, galleries.It goes the other way too. Some bedroomcommunities, which will go nameless,have asked us to take them out of thegallery listings of a larger community andgive them a town or city heading of theirown. The only problem we’ve had is whenall the galleries involved don’t agree onwhere they want to be included. And, I’veyet to have anyone call (knock on wood)complaining that some gallery is includedin one grouping and they don’t belongthere and they want me to move them out.Here’s something we wish peoplewould call us about - galleries that youfind in our gallery listings that are nolonger open. We get those calls occasionally,but not often enough. I guess the lastthing on a gallery owner’s mind whenthey have to close their gallery is to call usto inform us to remove their gallery fromour listings.Of course there was one time when anunhappy artist who was asked to leavea gallery called to tell us that the gallerywas closing. It’s a good thing we check allthose cases out before we remove anyone.We verify all info about closed galleriesbefore we remove them.There was also a case where an advertisercalled to tell us they were closing andwe needed to stop running their ad. Sowe stopped running the ad and removedtheir gallery listing and I stopped goingthere to deliver papers (back in the day).Six months later I turned the wrong wayand ended up going by that gallery andit looked like they were open. I calledto find out what the skinny was and gotsomeone who worked there instead of theowner and when I asked that I thoughtthey were closing - that employee almostfainted and asked me what was up.I told them that six months ago theowner told me they were closing and topull their ad. Turns out the owner justdidn’t feel good about telling me to pullthe ad as they were having to tighten theirbudget. I was amazed that it was easier totell me they were closing instead of tellingme they were cutting back on advertising.Hey, we all have to deal with the bottomline, but don’t tell me you’re closingif you want to stop advertising or have to.Tell me your ads were so successful thatyou just don’t need them anymore. Tellme your ad is working so well that youmight have to hire more staff and you justcan handle managing twenty employeesat a time. Tell me you didn’t like my lastcommentary, but don’t tell me you’reclosing. That can cause a chain reaction ofevents that could eventually lead to yourreal closing.You can even tell me you just don’tthink your ad is working for you. Believeme, we’ve heard that a few time over thelast 25 years - many times after someonejust ran their ad one month.Unlike some military commandersthink - we can handle the truth. And,we’re here to please.So, the lesson of the month is - lookto see where your gallery is listed in ourgallery listings to make sure you’re whereyou want to be and tell us if you’re notwhere you want to be. And, while you’rechecking the listings out, if you see a gallerylisted that is closed - e-mail or call usto let us know - we might need to removesomeone. You could also let us know thatwe’re not listing a gallery that we should.Remember - the more galleries there arein one area the more attractive that areawill be to visitors who are looking to getthe most out of their gas money.I’m not saying cars and art are anythingalike, but car dealers cluster for areason. People like to shop around, theyhave different tastes, and they like convenience.The NumbersOnce again this last month we sawover 81,000 downloads of the Feb. 2012issue of Carolina Arts. That’s now threemonths in a row where we had more than80,000 downloads in a month. There wasno surge in downloads in the bottom halfof the month, but we did set one recordduring that time. On Saturday, Feb. 25,2012, we set an all time record for visitsto our website in one day with over 4,200visitors. The day before and the dayafter saw less than 3,000 visitors. Whatattracted so many to the website on thatSaturday? Your guess is as good as mine.continued on Page 45 Page 4 - Carolina Arts, March 2012Table of Contents