The Limits of Support
WW's sponsorship of an event does not guarantee favorable coverage.

 

"Once in a long while a theater company rises to flout the conventions of stagecraft, carving out its own niche and engendering fresh enthusiasm for the art of theater.... Bold, fresh and imaginative, Imago is truly the prize in Portland's theatrical jewel box."
--from a July 8, 1998, WW review of Dead End Ed

"It might be unfair to accuse Elizabeth Huddle of bowdlerizing August Strindberg's Miss Julie, but she has belittled a great play.... [She] reserves her worst assault for the end, where she wantonly reduces a landmark in modern tragedy to an Octoroon melodrama of miscegenation."
--from a Jan. 15, 1997, WW review of Miss Julie

The above excerpts are reprinted here not to promote Steffen Silvis as the best theater critic in town (though he is), but to explain a potentially confusing aspect of WW: our sponsorship of local cultural events.

Last week a young woman who had read Silvis' review of Dead End Ed went to see the production at Imago Theater in Southeast Portland. When she took her seat, she noticed Willamette Week's logo prominently displayed in the program and a WW banner hanging in the lobby. Was Silvis' review, she wondered, "for sale"? Did WW's relationship with the production--as evidenced by the prominence of the logo--compel Silvis to write a glowing review?

Of course not. Consider Silvis' review of the Portland Center Stage production of Miss Julie. That production also had a relationship with WW--our logo appeared in the program--yet clearly Silvis felt free to trash it.

That freedom is key to Silvis' credibility. It is, in fact, the unwritten contract that he and all WW writers have with our readers. That said, WW's increasing association with cultural events does raise questions.

During the course of a year, Willamette Week sponsors dozens of events by providing free or reduced-cost advertising. We view it as both a privilege and an obligation to provide business support to cultural institutions that are an important part of the fabric of Portland life. In return, the organizations often give WW some form of public recognition.

At the same time, we make it clear that editorial support is not part of the package. The event may receive negative coverage or no coverage at all.

This seemingly contradictory arrangement can be confusing to readers and to the organizations themselves--in part because very few businesses operate this way. Even in the rapidly consolidating media industry--in which you hear the term "synergy" far more often than "editorial independence"--the distinction that we make between sponsorship and editorial coverage is becoming an anachronism.

For us, however, it is a separation that helps define our mission: to support Portland's cultural institutions and to defend our writers' freedom to judge productions solely on their merits.

 

originally published July 22, 1998