Chicago Classical Review wants you to advertise with us!
I try to keep public advertising pitches to the barest minimum on Chicago Classical Review for several reasons. We’re all bombarded enough with daily entreaties for our hard-earned dollars as it is, and, in this still-parlous economy, most individuals and businesses are under considerable pressure just staying afloat and paying bills. I also believe that this website should remain focused on the music and those we cover and not on the arduous behind-the-scenes heavy lifting it takes to keep this operation active.
Still, with your indulgence, I’m going to take advantage of the brief respite between the summer and fall music seasons, to make a sincere request to regular Chicago Classical Review readers to support this website through banner advertising.
I moved back to Chicago in May of 2009 to start Chicago Classical Review because I believed that my hometown has a rich and exciting music scene that deserves more comprehensive and wide-ranging coverage. With a terrific team of writers and a lot of hard work, I think Chicago Classical Review has already made a clear and substantial impact on the local classical scene in just one full season.
Yet, the fact is that running a website like this on as tight a budget as possible still requires sufficient advertising support to allow us to continue to do our work.
We do not charge for access to our website nor to read our articles, and Chicago Classical Review’s archive is always available on the site for free.
Nor are we a charitable institution, a foundation or a nonprofit that can drawn on tax-free financial support from public grants or private benefactors. We are a business and, as a business, we depend on advertising to survive.
We have a few loyal advertisers and more of Chicago’s music organizations have signed on in the 2010-2011 season, and we greatly appreciate that support.
But, frankly, we require more financial support than we have received to date. As low as we keep operating expenses, we need ad revenue to pay our writers, maintain the continued upkeep of our website, and to allow us to expand in covering the vast panoply of music organizations, large and small, throughout the Chicagoland area.
So, I ask all regular readers who would like to see Chicago Classical Review continue its work, to consider purchasing advertising for their businesss. You can contact me for advertising details and rates.
The majority of our advertisers have been classical performing organizations, but we are by no means limited to music ensembles or classical artists. Restaurants, hotels, clubs, law offices, car dealerships, universities, accounting firms, realtors, construction companies, private music instructors—any individual or business that would like to ensure the future of Chicago Classical Review is welcome to advertise with us. Our traffic has increased by leaps and bounds this year, and our click-thru ad numbers in recent months have been remarkable, considering summer is the slow season.
If every organization that received a review last season and a small percentage of readers purchased just two weeks of advertising each, that would be sufficient to see us through next year. If you are not able to personally support CCR with advertising, but know a friend, relative, or business associate who might be interested in doing so, I ask you to contact them on our behalf.
Chicago’s 2010-2011 music season promises to be one of the most exciting and significant in many years and, with your support, Chicago Classical Review will continue to be there to cover it all in a lively, fair, intelligent, and comprehensive way.
Thank you for your support.
Lawrence A. Johnson
Editor
Chicago Classical Review
Posted in Articles
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