City Arts today announced a new member-raising campaign that is the first step in establishing itself as a new independent media company, separate from its longtime parent, Encore Media Group.
The cornerstone of the City Arts brand is City Arts magazine, the free, glossy monthly dedicated entirely to the region's creative community. City Arts also publishes new stories daily at cityartsmagazine.com and produces a suite of regular events that includes Art Walk Awards, Band Crush, the Future List Party, and Genre Bender. City Arts currently reaches 95,000 readers each month.
In the new model, all of these offerings will continue and the overall City Arts platform will become even more robust with the addition of an all-new membership program. This new membership program gives the most engaged community of readers and supporters a chance to invest in City Arts during its transition to independence.
From April 5 through May 14, 2018, City Arts is offering the public a limited opportunity to pre-register for membership, with "Founding Member" prestige, a status that offers home delivery, exclusive access to events, custom artist-designed swag, and special insider experiences. To learn more and to become a City Arts Founding Member, please visit CityArtsMagazine.com.
"Without Encore Media Group, City Arts would not exist today," says Andy Fife, City Arts publisher. "Since founding the magazine 12 years ago, Encore has subsidized City Arts as a community benefit and a component of the company brand--but the time has come for a bold new direction. This move will give City Arts the room needed to unfold to its full wingspan and unlock its true potential, something we hope the greater arts community is as excited about as we are. Today marks our first public step in this direction, and we hope the arts-loving community will join us."
In a time when arts journalism is rapidly disappearing, City Arts is the only media outlet in the greater Seattle area that consistently covers all aspects of the local creative community, and there is no other publication like it nationwide. Under the editorial direction of editor in chief Leah Baltus, the magazine practices high-quality, ethical journalism and original reporting in service of the region's artists and creative community. The magazine is committed to spotlighting emerging artists through its annual Future List and is consistently the first media voice to cover artists coming up in Seattle before they arrive on the national stage, such as cover stories about Macklemore (July 2011) and All The Way playwright Robert Schenkkan (November 2014). Over the past 24 months, City Arts has featured 22 women and 22 people of color on its covers.
"Our commitment to covering the local scene first and foremost helps to strengthen it and support an environment where artists can live and work here throughout their careers, without having to leave town to find greater success," Baltus says. "Our inclusive philosophy makes it possible for us to cover all kinds of creativity with equal thoughtfulness and respect, from opera to street art. In doing so we build not only audiences, but bridges within the community that lead to creative innovation and a stronger collective whole."
Videos