Signs of Classical Music Journalism's Demise

A couple of years ago Martin Bernheimer wrote a piece entitled "Critics in a hostile world" for the Financial Times, blaming the Interwebs for killing off newspapers. Up until that point, I had not thought much about bloggers taking the place of professional music critics. Of course, anyone can start a blog. There are loads of them, most quite boring. It is difficult to even find an audience, given the amount of content, or lack thereof, that is out there. With a newspaper, whether in print or online, it is clear where to go.

This month Bernheimer covered journalist Donald Rosenberg's lawsuit against The Plain Dealer and the Cleveland Orchestra. Rosenberg lost, and this doesn't bode well for critics, obviously. Now the music critic of the Orange County Register, Tim Mangan, has been reassigned to cover celebrity nonsense. It is all rather alarming.