Fri, July 25, 2008
On a recent survey to Columbia University students who bought Broadway tickets, of 201 surveys completed, the leading source people selected as to what they read to learn about theatre was the NY Times Online (53%) – more than double those that selected Timeout NY which was tied with Broadway.com as the second most selected. Randomly, the week after I saw these results, I was lucky enough to sit on a panel at the InTix conference which focused on how theatre was reaching out to younger demographics. There were three of us in the industry and three students on the panel. As expected, MySpace, Facebook, Gawker (millions of other blogs) and Flavorpill were mentioned. Twitter a few times. But, what was most interesting though, a few of the student panelists mentioned the NY Times online as their primary source for news about theatre.
Now, the survey only had 201 respondent’s and 75% of respondents to the survey have claimed to see 3 or more Broadway or off-Broadway shows in the past year – so these are avid theatergoers. And, the mention during the conference was from arts students. But still, I don’t think the NY Times gets enough credit for engaging younger audiences.
What do I take from this? Those ‘in the know’ about theatre trust the NY Times across all age groups and it’s something we need to keep a close eye on.
Signup 
About 
Archives
