I need your help!

Hi everyone. I am getting a bit personal here because times are changing and music journalism is changing too. I have an exciting announcement:

I'm about to launch a new website!

I am in the process of designing a new website to meet the changing needs of arts journalism in Western Australia. I'd appreciate your thoughts on what this might look like. This is your chance to shape the face of music journalism in Perth!

A year ago I posted a blog on The Future of Journalism. Since then:

•  The West Australian newspaper has taken over the Sunday Times, foreshadowing the changes in media ownership laws which were passed in the Senate just last week allowing greater monopoly in the Australian media industry. 
• The arts pages in the West Australian have covered far less of the WA arts scene and often used non-specialist writers. Last month OperaBox's entire opera season of Manon passed without a review from any of the local press.
• Other media organisations have stepped up their coverage of WA in small ways: the Australian Book Review and more notably Limelight magazine have been publishing more reviews from Perth.
• The online Perth Arts Live has folded and a new arts site SeeSaw Magazine has launched.
• The national Senate has launched an inquiry into the Future of Public Interest Journalism. A hearing was held in May and findings will be passed down on 7th December.

I've had the opportunity to rethink the way I contribute to the arts scene. Perth has a thriving arts scene and I am more convinced than ever that I want to be part of the debate, to be known as someone who champions the WA arts scene. I've enjoyed new opportunities as a public speaker as well as expanding my writing to The Guardian, Limelight, ABR and The Australian newspaper. 

Despite this I've lost a lot of income and done more work for free than I would've liked. And I've been saddened to watch the media coverage of the arts continue to shrink. Which has led me to this exciting period of developing a new website. This is where I want to hear from you:

What do you look for in conversations about the arts? 

What would you be interested in hearing about? 

What format works for you: podcast, listicle, reviews, interviews?

One of the benefits of the huge media shakeup is there are now so many different ways to do journalism. What do you think are the best ways to do music journalism? The best ways to document, critique and champion classical music and its practitioners?

Please post comments below or contact me at rosalindappleby(at)gmail.com

Your suggestions will be part of the new version of Noted, coming very soon!