Overview:
Seacoast Arts, a New Hampshire Seacoast-based website, is being designed as an arts and entertainment website focused on providing previews, coverage and features on local arts events, including, but not limited to, music, fine art, dance, theatre, literature, dining and film. The site had its inception in September 2012 as it was realized that the arts scene of the area is vibrant, far-reaching, growing and in need of a 21st century publication that can compete with the ever-changing news structure reliant on social media and Internet interaction.It operates on a simple premise: Keep it clean, keep it simple, keep it updated.
The site prides itself on its ability to deliver event information spanning the Seacoast region into a dual format of a blog and a calendar, while providing links to share the information via social media. It will attain a competitive edge by striving to include as many relevant events as possible with clear, timely and in-depth reporting.
Highlights of Seacoastarts.com:
> Wide-reaching audience: As one of the major draws of the Seacoast area is its arts scene, residents of the area and tourists to the area will benefit from this website.
> Relationship with community: As a local, tight-knit community, Seacoast Arts will make it a top priority to create lasting relationships with the arts community, including music halls, theaters, bookstores, museums, etc.
> Opportunity for advertisers: Also with such a localized community, the potential for advertisers is great and will contribute to much of our revenue. Arts and entertainment are commonly linked with dining and nights-out, making our site a go-to place for restaurants looking to make their establishment the go-to place for a dinner/date combination.
> Easy-to-use interface: The main draw of Seacoast Arts it its promise that the interface of the website will be easy to navigate, while using many of the social media features that younger generations rely on to share news.
Competitive market
Our main competition will be the publication The Wire, which has a website and produces a weekly print edition that it distributes throughout the area for free. However, we will have a competitive advantage over The Wire by utilizing social media and by using its calendar format as much as possible, a feature that the Wire does not use on its website.
My key competition is other Seacoast publications that cover the arts scene. Newspapers such as The Portsmouth Herald and Foster’s Daily Democrat both have arts and entertainment sections, and recently, Patch produces arts content as well. These publications clearly have a base relationship with the arts community and are well trusted in the community to provide accurate, timely news and solid reviews. They have standard sections that they produce week after week and provide fun parts of their site, such as quizzes and competitions.
In my research, it appears that timeliness and focus are one of the major issues of my competition. The ability to stay on top of constant updates and new information can often become a backlog, and when many of the publications do not produce their sections every day, things get lost in the shuffle. Also, many of the publications use national arts and entertainment news, as well, which detracts from the local feel of the publication.
Mission Statement:
The mission of Seacoast Arts is to provide previews and coverage of local arts-related events in a direct, easy-to-use compilation of events, online. We strive to become the go-to website for Seacoast residents and tourists of the area alike to find out what is going on in the arts scene.
Company Summary:
Seacoast Arts will have its principal offices located in Durham, N.H. but will extend its coverage to Seabrook, Hampton Falls, Hampton, North Hampton, Rye, New Castle, Portsmouth, Brentwood, Danville, Dover, Durham, East Kingston, Epping, Exeter, Fremont Greenland, Hampstead, Kensington, Kingston, Lee, Madbury, Newfields, Newington, Newmarket, Newton, North Hampton, Plaistow, Rollinsford, Rochester, Sandown, Somersworth, South Hampton and Stratham. All operations of this company will take place from a leased office location. The company also plans to hire a staff of two editors and four staff writers.
The website’s goal, first and foremost, is keeping the public informed of local arts-related events in the Seacoast area. The basic format of the website is as follows:
> A basic homepage. Half the page is a blog format, allowing visitors to view the events happening today. In the corner is the link to the calendar, with a video of the week spotlight on the bottom.
> The calendar itself will be the main draw to the site. Users will be able to filter events by town or genre, or look at the calendar as a whole. Links on the calendar, once clicked, will access a pop-out bar of information on the event, including the article itself, and links to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and a web link to get more information on the event.
Staff background
As an arts aficionado living in the Seacoast area, I will head the staff, which is slated to include one other editor and four staff writers. Staff writers will be responsible for doing research on events in the area and writing up articles based on press releases and interviews. These will be college-educated writers with specialties in the arts; if possible, I would like to hire writers with specialties in the different areas of the arts scene.
As head editor, I will take my skills learned from writing for the Arts section of The New Hampshire for three years and editing for them for two, in addition to editing for The Record Enterprise and The Portsmouth Herald. I am also trained in page design, so will have the design skills necessary to upkeep a website like this.
Finances
The company’s startup finances will largely be directed toward paying a programmer to design and create the website itself. From there, costs should be mostly for paying for hosting the website, paying for a server, the upkeep of the website and salaries for the editors and staff writers.
The website will rely mostly on revenue from advertisements to fund its monthly costs. As previously stated, companies will be eager to advertise with the website because of its nature. Monthly costs will include the price of purchasing a web domain name ($9.99 per month) and the web server ($79.99 per month) both with GoDaddy.com. Up front costs will include the cost to hire a web page designer, a programmer, and instructors for the staff on how to maintain the website. It will be possible to do work from home computers, so no extra computers or servers will need to be purchased for the office.
