A former alternative weekly, is returning to the Capital Region after shuttering a decade ago. Metroland, which went up for sale in 2015, is being reimagined as Metroland Now an online platform for arts, culture and entertainment. Local artist Erin Harkes is at the forefront of revitalizing the publication, which was a must read for area culture vultures for decades. I asked Harkes why she wanted to bring it back.
Well, as somebody who has worked in in the community, in the arts and entertainment scene for the past 25 years, I've obviously used and seen the need for having a good arts and entertainment publication. I noticed right after the pandemic that people came out in full force, and then the pendulum swung violently to the other side, and people stopped coming out as much. And so, I've been really exploring ways to get people to come out, ways to entice people to come out, different ways of marketing, and I just kind of saw a little bit of a void.
You had to get permissions and rights to use the brandings. Why didn't you keep it just Metro land? Why did you make it Metroland Now?
Well, that was one of the conditions the former editor in chief, Steve Leon who very graciously offered it over to me. He just asked that we have some sort of modifier to indicate that it was under a different regime.
And of course, this is just getting off the ground. But what will staffing look like, and how do you plan to finance this new publication?
Well, for starters, we are a nonprofit organization. We are looking to help other nonprofit organizations with their events, with their fundraising, especially like our lovely venues such as The Linda, Proctors, Café Lena, Universal Preservation Hall, Troy Music Hall, these amazing places that are nonprofits as well. We want to obviously shine a bigger light on them and also help the arts and entertainment scene as best we can. So, we're definitely going to be doing some fundraising, and beyond that, definitely just your run of the mill, advertising online and in a print when the print comes out.
I wanted to talk about that. So, it's going to launch online first, and will it eventually convert to a printed media as well? And what’s social media going to look like for you guys?
The website is live now, and that's themetroland.com the social media is up on Instagram and Facebook, and we're going to follow up with X, Twitter, and whatever else the public asks for. And then, yeah, we're looking to start a monthly print hopefully in October.
And will you guys have articles? What will the contents really look like of Metroland Now?
The main focus is going to be an events calendar that's very thorough, very detailed, very comprehensive. We've been scraping data for the longest time, just going on every website for just for example, we went through October just to make sure that we had stuff once everything was up and running and we have over 200 events in the Capital Region in just eight weeks. So, the fact that we've already got those loaded, locked and loaded shows how much stuff is going on and how it really needs to be highlighted, and so we've just been that's been a full-time thing. So that's our focal point. And beyond that, it's going to be mostly previews of shows that are coming up, reviews of shows that have just happened, and then interviews with local personalities that are important to the Capital Region, to the art scene.
How far is the reach of the publication going to be? Is it just the Capital Region? I'm sure that so many events to keep track of. But does it extend to maybe Western Massachusetts? Or how far north does it go? Or how far south?
Basically, I'm looking at the Capital Region almost as diamond as it were, with like Albany, Schenectady, Troy and Saratoga and then just the surrounding area. So, we'll definitely go as far into the North Country. To me, I guess everybody has a different definition of how we divide these upstate areas. And for me, the Capital District has always included the North Country, so definitely Albany and points due north, a little bit east, a little bit west. We're going to try and focus on the main cities in the area.
And as a local creative What was your relationship like with the original publication?
I had a great relationship with them. They were always very kind to me. I was on the cover twice. The first time that I was on the cover was when I was still pretty green in the area, and so that felt like a coming of age, I guess. That was definitely a turning point for me, getting on the cover in 2005. I was always mentioned whenever I had big events coming up, they were always just very kind to me.
Erin Harkes is the Editor in Chief and owner of Metroland Now.
