More On The High School Drama Festival

The other day, I wrote about the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival and some griping by a Herald blogger. Today, I'm going to post, with permission, a response to one of my e-mails from Michael McGarty, chairman of the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild.

Dear Geoff,

Thanks for emailing us all and letting us know what was occurring on the arts blog.

In order to understand the current issue, you need to understand a bit of history.  The Globe has generously sponsored the final level of the Massachusetts High School Drama Festival since 1954. From then until about five years ago, we worked with the Globe's promotion department which publicized the event.

For years, before each level of the event there would be an article in the Globe either in the Arts or City/Region section listing the performance sites and the participants, and then at the end of the festival an article with pictures listing the winning schools and individual student awards. Also, the Globe ran a ¼ page ad advertising the event. However, over the years it became increasingly difficult for even the promotion department to get coverage from the Arts section especially since the publicity would appear as self promotion for the Globe.

As you stated in your own blog, the arts editors are inundated with requests for coverage on a daily basis. We've been told that given the large number of professional requests for publicity that, unless we had a "hook" for the story, our chances for any publicity were slim. We've therefore concentrated our efforts on local and regional newspapers and the Globe regional editions that are more responsive to carry our information. We also submit to the Globe calendar section but again there is no guarantee that the publicity will be carried.

The MHSDG obviously highly values the longstanding relationship with the Boston Globe that was started over 50 years ago by the Taylor family. Now under the auspices of the Boston Globe Foundation we continue to develop that association to serve our membership.

We welcome your help in getting our message out to the public. You can be assured that we will contact you next year in advance of the event.

Sincerely,
Michael McGarty, Chair MHSDG