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We all have our favorite Sunday newspaper sections. Mine is the Art + Culture section. I love the design, the big photos, the book section, and always find something you’ll never encounter in today’s cramped world of algorithmic media that feeds you content.
This section is led by arts and entertainment editor Michael James Rocha, who also edited Friday’s Night & Day. Rocha came to UT in December 1997 as a functional page designer. Previously, he worked as a reporter, copy editor and city editor for newspapers such as the Orange County Chronicle, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, and the Ontario Journal. He received his BA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton, in 1994, with an emphasis on print journalism.
A standout achievement for Arts+Culture is not only surviving the pandemic when it shut down all its entertainment venues, but also thriving through personal stories of how creators persevered during the crisis.
In June, Arts+Culture was named the nation’s best newspaper with a circulation of 90,000 to 199,999 by the Feature News Association for the second year in a row. Below, Rocha answers questions to give readers insight into feature coverage:
How has Art + Culture and Night and Day changed after COVID?
When Night & Day returns in July 2021, after more than a year of absence, we’re not sure what state it will return to. Is there enough to write about? Will there be enough ads to support it? Thankfully, the arts and entertainment industries have returned in a big way. Yes, some areas, like theatre, still have some audience issues, but for the most part, a lot has recovered.
At the height of the pandemic, when much of the world was shut down, we found innovative ways to write about art. We try not to go back to the old way of doing things, which is to let events drive our reporting. We work really hard to write about the arts in ways we haven’t done in the past, finding interesting people and organizations that bring our cultural world to life.
How many staff writers do you have?
Internally, we have a full-time art writer: George Varga, our music critic and writer. Pam Kragen writes for the press, but she’s also our drama and dining critic. So she is definitely part of the entertainment team. Karla Peterson and Lisa Deaderick are both news columnists who contribute to our coverage by writing about art in their respective columns.
How many regular freelancers do you have?
We have a core of five freelancers who have refined our coverage in books, classical music, dance and visual arts. One of the contributors, David L. Coddon, also writes the weekly Arts & Culture newsletter, which is published every Thursday. We have two other freelancers who only do classical music reviews.
Freelancers seem to really know their stuff – maybe experts. Really?
I think it’s a combination of expertise and passion. Some of them we wouldn’t really consider experts in the field, so to speak, but they are passionate about what they write. So much so that they end up being our “experts” – they really understand the people, organizations, and problems in their fields.
Who are frequent readers likely to know by name?
Seth Combs, known in town as the former editor of CityBeat, does a lot of the heavy lifting in our books and visual arts coverage. His knowledge, especially in the visual arts, has taken us into all corners of our community where we’ve never been. He writes a monthly feature featuring local visual artists, and through this, he showcases some truly amazing San Diego. Dennis Davidson also writes books. Beth Wood writes about classical music, and Christian Hertzog and Lukas Schulze write our classical music reviews. Marcia Luttrell writes about dance. David L. Coddon, our newsletter leader, also writes about the arts and helps supplement our theater reviews while Pam Kragen is busy.
What vision guides coverage? What do you want to do?
The goal is simple: to celebrate and enhance San Diego’s arts and entertainment community, and to ensure our coverage reflects the diverse world in which we live. It’s a simple enough goal, but not easy. San Diego is very productive. From theatre to music and everything in between, we have a lot to do. The challenge is how do we cover everything and do it well. We really can’t. So we try to find a balance between writing big things and not so big things. Some weeks we do well, other weeks not so much. Luckily, we do it all over again every week, so we just try to do better.
The arts department was named the best department in the country. Why? What makes it different?
Our weekly goal is to make a lively, fun and informative section. I think we’ll make it every week. What sets us apart, however, are those special issues we produce several times a year where we stretch our journalism and delve into community-based journalism. For example, last year we wrote about racial equity in local theaters and did a special section on what it means to be an artist in America.
Are you ready for this part?
Our annual fall art preview will be released on September 11th. It’s always a busy time of the year for us, and on September 11, you’ll see why. The upcoming season will be a busy one.
Did readers provide any feedback that might affect the story?
We haven’t heard much from our readers, so maybe we’re doing it right. But when we do hear from them, we’re always grateful because their advice often improves the way we reach our communities. A lot of what we do actually depends on our connections in the community. Sometimes, we miss something, mostly because we don’t even know it. So a lot of our interactions with our readers are they let us know about people or events that we should know. Some of our best stories come from reader feedback.
Rocha can be reached at michael.rocha@sduniontribune.com
adrian.vore@sduniontribune.com
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