One thing I've always had to contend with during 11 years of doing a print version of the Richmond Music Journal was the theory that, despite the fact I owned it, produced it, sold the ads, did all the work, etc., some people thought it was supposed to be a people's newspaper and thus be what they wanted it to be, cover local music the way they thought it should be covered, include the bands they wanted to read about in a devoted, supportive way they imagined a local newspaper should be (on what planet, I don't know...papers that did take this approach never made it a year, if you recall).
They have called me every kind of ugly, sexist, woman-bashing name, both privately and publicly, for not meeting their expectations.
The paper was never a significant money-maker for me. My success was that it never went into debt as others did. I printed every submission about local music. Sorry, but I am not going to write everything, and if nobody else writes about it, then it's not going to be written about. I have never had a staff. Never could afford one. In that sense, the paper was socialist and open to everyone. But no one else wanted to do the work.
Those who I consider essential contributors to the paper were the infamous Killer Montone, my partners in the midnight rambling years, Lisa Honeycutt and Anne Soffee, and my last two devoted writers, Robert Stutler and Walter Boelt (who I never met in person). Other writers came and went, but those were the main ones. I had some very devoted advertisers, too, like Moondance, Poe's Pub, A Major Music, Boulevard Deli, and Oasis that kept the paper alive. And if you wrote a couple of things or contributed a few photos over the 11 years, thank you very, very much, but you didn't go to the mountain top with us so it's not like I owe you until the end of time.
The web site is even more mine, and I truly do what I want with it and what I have time to do. I pay for it, why shouldn't I? Do your own Web site.
And I have never, ever said I was an expert on music or even knew anything about it. I am good at publishing a paper that doesn't go into debt. That was my skill. I depended on other people's knowledge and tastes for content. When I wrote, it was about what I thought and where I wanted to go, without any claims that I was an expert. There are some local music events and traditions I have never attended, I admit. There's an in-crowd in the local music scene that I have never been a part of and didn't enjoy hanging out with because their heads were often very far up their butts. I sometimes think they were part of the reason more things didn't happen in Richmond. Some of them were nice, but in the Richmond tradition, they just kept hanging on to the way things once were.
I'm not going to debate this with some of you anymore, especially those who haven't even noticed the paper has been gone for more than two years. Just like you were never required to read the paper, you need not visit here either. Go do your own web site.
2 comments:
Yay! I got a shout out!
You know I watched the paper fanatically during the year that my rabid little Pomeranian of a publicist had me plastered in everything from Punchline to the New York Times. I thought I would finally get on the RMJ Hot List! But I never did, and that was the closest I ever came to being a rock star. Not close enough!
Yeah, fuck 'em, though. They treat you like the little red hen. They can starve! You baked the bread.
Ah, but we have promoted your book on the home page forever now like a stock on Wall Street, watching the price go up, down, up and down and someone did review it when we were printing the paper.
I didn't think about giving Hot List points for writers...hmmm. Then I would have to acknowledge some of the people who abandoned me to write for money on other papers!
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