The Tribune, a growing large-city newspaper with a civic-minded publisher, will be adding a new column to the Arts and Leisure Section. The publisher must decide between a restaurant review and a theater review. Write an essay in which you argue for one proposal over the other, keeping in mind the following criteria:
· the publisher wants to increase the papers circulation, making it more attractive to advertisers.
· the publisher wants to contribute the revitalization of the city’s Lakewood district, which is a magnet for nightlife and is perceived as being crucial to the city’s development.
The Tribune’s chief competitor, the Standard, publishes a restaurant review that is one of its most popular lifestyle features. Surveys indicate that readers of Tribune would be receptive to a restaurant review in its pages. An established reviewer from an alternative newspaper in a large city would write the column. He lacks the prestige of the Standard’s reviewer, but is less traditional and would probably appeal to a different audience. Several Local restaurants have indicate that they would be more willing to a advertise in the Tribune if it featured a restaurant review. Some of these are in the Lakewood district, whose already flourishing restaurant scene would likely improve with the interest another restaurant review column would generate.
If the Tribune were to publish a theater review, it would be the only one in the city, since the Standard does not publish one. The Tribune has the opportunity to hire a distinguished reviewer form a major metropolitan newspaper, who would like to return to her own city, where Tribune is located. Her coming to the Tribune would be an event that would attract considerable publicity. The Tribune’s current readers express little demand for a theater column, but interest in theater in the city is growing and with a distinguished theater critic on a city newspaper, it would be spurred considerably. All of the city’s major theaters are located in the Lakewood district, which would therefore benefit form such a development. Currently, advertising by theaters is a significantly smaller source of revenue to newspaper than advertising by restaurants.
