In January, the Atlantic posed a scary question: "What if the New York Times goes out of business --like this May?"

The answer is even scarier:

It’s certainly plausible. Earnings reports released by the New York Times Company in October indicate that drastic measures will have to be taken over the next five months or the paper will default on some $400 million in debt. With more than $1billion in debt already on the books, only $46 million in cash reserves as of October, and no clear way to tap into the capital markets (the company’s debt was recently reduced to junk status), the paper’s future doesn’t look good.

When it comes to press outreach and relations, doesn't it feel like the more you do, the less you get?  The more advisories and releases you send, the fewer reporters and critics there are and the less space there is to cover the arts.

I had the opportunity in January to participate in a panel convened by the League of Chicago Theatres and the Chicago-based Community Media Workshop titled "The Incredible Shrinking Media and What It Means for Your Arts Organization."  We reflected on the obstacles and opportunities facing artists and arts organizations when it comes to both traditional and new media.

Gordon Mayer of the Workshop moderated, and broadcast superstar Sylvia Ewing, Catey Sullivan of examiner.com, and Kris Vire of Time Out Chicago were our other panelists.

Chicago Public Radio recorded the event: http://tiny.cc/shrinkingmedia.

A sampling of insights and stories shared:

Myths and pointers about social media that kept me on track in 2008.

This year was the year I finally tackled many social media sites to connect with arts audiences. When speaking with other professionals in the business, the question always arises: "What's the best web 2.0/social media site?"  The answer is all of them and none of them. What many arts marketing practitioners seem to misunderstand is that there's not going to be one application that be the solution to filling a social media void. In fact, the best approach may change each month. In 2008 we saw the rise of Facebook and Twitter over Myspace and other such applications. But now that everyone's grandma is on Facebook, what's the next hot web 2.0 tool for you to use to connect with audiences? That remains to be seen, but here are some social media myths and pointers that kept me on track in 2008, and which seem relevant in 2009.

Economic recovery is coming.  Whether it is months or years away we must not lose confidence that recovery is just beyond the horizon.

So let's focus on on the task at hand.  To our organizations and to our field, our responsibility is to do more than merely survive (though survival itself is surely a significant challenge.)

Our present job is to emerge from these hardships smarter and stronger than we are now.  Let's focus on "Sur-thrival" - the act of investing today in efforts that will bear abundant fruit in the future.