How We Work

Carolina Arts & You

Carolina Arts is a for-profit operation. It does not receive any government funding directly. Our sole source of income is through advertising support which comes mainly from commercial art galleries. We operate on a shoestring with a staff of only two people. We cover the visual arts only of North and South Carolina. The paper is published monthly and is uploaded on the first day of the month. The paper's size varies according to the amount of advertising we receive each month.

As far as the content of the paper goes we try to cover the non-profit and commercial sectors equally, as best we can. The focus of the paper is based on exhibits. If at times it looks like we are favoring our advertisers - you are correct. Without them there would be no paper. Because we are only a staff of two and we spend most of our time on the production of the paper, we don't have time to generate articles. We depend on those people who are presenting exhibits to know best what they would like the public to know about them.

If you need help on writing a press release we have provided an excellent example on our web site found at (www.CarolinaArts.com), then click on the "How the Paper Works" section, then on "How to Write a Press Release...".

Our deadline for articles, gallery listings and copy-ready ads is the 24th of the month by 5pm prior to the next issue (example: Dec. 24th for the Jan. issue).
If you want us to put an ad together for you, call or email us now. We need info for ads we put together well before the 24th deadline. Sending all information earlier than the deadline is a smart idea, so we have time to work on all of the content we receive and identify problems early.

We encourage people to electronic images that are 3" wide and at 300 dpi with their press releases. Images should be either jpgs or tifs, unless they are logos and are eps or gif files. We might get to use them on the website - and we might not too. But if we don't have them we can't use them. Saying they are available on request won't work - we won't bother since you didn't. Cover images are chosen by the editor.

As we have said before, advertising is important to the paper's survival, now in its 37th year. We do receive some advertising from non-profit institutions as well as our commercial customers. Our paper offers the most cost effective way for anyone to promote an exhibit or themselves in a two-state area and beyond. We can not compete with local papers in your area. We offer an inexpensive way to promote events outside your area and beyond, building up name recognition and showing the types of exhibits you present. A free listing buried in the many pages of our gallery listings won't cause most people to drive a hundred miles to see an exhibit. At times you will have to make a bigger effort to invite them to make that trip.

One final point about advertising. Advertising does not buy you automatic inclusion of content in the paper. Some newspapers operate on a you buy an ad, you get an article basis. We don't and can't operate that way. If we did you would be reading about nothing but commercial gallery exhibits - they provide the bulk of our support. We have some advertisers who have been with us every month for 20 years and they have had at best 3-4 articles about them and we have institutions who have never advertised with us and they have had dozens of articles in the paper. Advertising not only helps you, but it helps the paper exist and it helps the entire visual art community in the Carolinas - it's something you should be doing, whether you think you can afford it or not. And, it always doesn't have to be a big splash. We constantly tell people it is better to do smaller ads over a longer period of time than big splashes every once in a while.

If there are any other questions that we haven't answered here feel free to call us, e-mail, or write us about anything. We're trying to do the best we can and we can only do it in partnership with you. Some of the best things in the paper have come from someone's suggestion - not all are possible, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

We hope this answers some of your questions. If not, please call, 843.693.1306.

Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, 511 Hildebrand Drive, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone: 843.693.1306
E-Mail: info@carolinaarts.com

Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 1987-2024 by PSMG, Inc. which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - December 1994 and South Carolina Arts from January 1995 - December 1996. It also published Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 1998 - 2024 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited.