Via ArtsJournal, Melodie Bahan, Director of Communications at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, makes a good case for abandoning the traditional opening night review-oriented newspaper coverage of theater:
Does the average newspaper reader even skim—much less read—a review of the latest production from a small theater company she’s never heard of and has no intention of seeing? Probably not. But she might well read movie reviews and almost certainly reads feature stories about the movie industry, even if she sees only two or three movies a year. I believe it’s because, in part, newspapers provide stories about the film industry that explain and inform, yet provide little real coverage of the theater community in this town.