Dear Reader
Thank you for taking the time to read this, the first editorial of the new Gessnerallee newspaper. As you may have noticed, more and more cultural institutions are turning to this medium for their own publications - be it in the form of a journal, magazine or newspaper. Some are more journalistic, some more promotional. In the end, it is about promoting the arts, artists and institutions with the aim of bringing urgent social debates, exciting personalities, interesting thoughts and sometimes pure entertainment to the public’s attention.
So why are cultural institutions doing this extra work and incurring additional costs, you might ask? There are several reasons for this: Audience development has become much more difficult since the Covid-19 pandemic. An increased complexity of social debates that need to be negotiated through art, but also need a space beyond the artistic programme. And, above all: a lack of visibility for the arts in the media. The omnipresent media crisis means that editorial offices have fewer and fewer financial resources available for in-depth and thorough cultural journalism. This often leads to more click-bait driven reporting taking a dominant place within the public debate.
We very much hope that journalism and the media industry as a whole can improve at some point. However, as this will most likely take a while, we have decided to make a virtue out of necessity - and our love of journalism. From the 2024/25 season onwards, we will be publishing both digitally and in print, with articles in English and German. The printed newspaper will appear every three months and we will publish articles digitally on our website whenever we think it makes sense.
We aim to choose topics with care and to promote debate in an enriching way. The publication will serve, amongst other things, to share knowledge, to highlight cultural policy concerns and as a means of promoting transparency. We will work with different forms such as analyses, essays, interviews, portraits, columns, horoscopes and playlists. Content will follow the themes of the artistic programme and the operation of the Gessnerallee as a centre for the arts and artists .
We look forward to your curiosity and to stimulating debates. Please give us your feedback. We are taking time for you and the time to publish.
Rahel Bains, Kathrin Veser, Miriam Walther
