A NYT Arts Blog?

Well if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

NYTimes.com has quietly launched a new arts blog for its reporters, "ArtsBeat." As Culturegrrl reports, good luck finding it! But just for you, here's a direct link.

No theatre pieces yet. Just music so far.

Will Mssrs Brantley and Isherwood use it to tell us what they really think? Will we have extra reviews? More feature/profiles? Stay tuned, I guess...

BTW, these "group blogs" are catching on with the MSM. Time Out seems to have been first. Now New York Magazine offers us Vulture, with some theatre posts already courtesy of blogger Mac Rogers.

To me these seem less like blogs than clearinghouses. Not in a bad way. But I'm not sure why a reader would turn to them. By design, there's no unique voice, no point of view, no agenda as of yet. Other than to increase google search hits?

But we'll see with the Times if this signals any freeing up of the critics there to engage in larger discussions and comment more freely on theatre beyond high-profile openings.