Artslink
Artslink.co.za (Soundalite cc, trading as Artslink.co.za, also referred to simply as Artslink) is an internet-based media distribution service for South African arts, culture and entertainment news. Releases are placed on the web and mobi sites, e-mailed to niche market media on newspapers, magazines, radio and television and to an ever-expanding database of subscribers nationwide, forwarded to Google News and other internet sites and posted on Facebook and Twitter.
It was launched in January 1997 by webmaster and founder T.J. de Klerk, as a privately owned and independent Internet Service Provider (ISP), an all-inclusive website and database, which sells tickets, distributes SA arts, culture and entertainment news and hosts an annual directory of recurring national arts festivals and events. Although this built up a substantial body of information it was impossible to maintain without funding which could not be obtained, so the database went offline, and De Klerk then developed ACEmail, sending out news on the arts, culture and entertainment via e-mail to subscribers who opted to receive it, choosing region and genre.
As a payment model failed to work, it became a free service to readers, but they turned to another payment model. Creating a Virtual Press Office (VPO) and began charging publicists and artists a moderate fee to distribute their releases to Artslink.co.za’s, database of niche market subscribers and media. Today the website's reach, via subscribers, RSS feeds, Google News, traditional and social media, is substantially in the thousands.
Accredited members of the media and subscribed members of the public thus receive, via e-mail, a free daily newsfeed tailored to their interests and area (art, dance, literature, music, theatre, province, etc.), the weekly summaries ArtWrap, FilmWrap, ShowBuzz, ArtSpoken, etc. , posting articles by established and aspiring arts writers for free. Among the most influential early contributions were arts administrator, activist and playwright Mike van Graan's The Cultural Weapon commentaries in the 1990s (later taken up by Van Graan's website https://mikevangraan.wordpress.com/.)
In 2009, journalist and arts writer Jennifer de Klerk joined the team as Editor, with T.J. de Klerk as Webmaster.
Sources
NATindustry - Artslink.co.za celebrates 20th anniversary - 01/2017 - Artslink.co.za News
The Artslink website at : http://www.artslink.co.za
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