The Nashville City Paper Announces Partnership with Community Foundation
From today’s Nashville City Paper:
City Paper’ partners with Community Foundation
By William Williams, business correspondentOfficials with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and The City Paper announced today they are forming a partnership to boost the presence of the Web site and minimize duplication of the effort among groups providing event information.Launched by the foundation last August, NowPlayingNashville.com builds audiences for arts and entertainment organizations, while simultaneously promoting cultural tourism and encouraging corporate relocation.“With The City Paper’s help, we’ll be able to reach a broader audience, hopefully increasing the number of people supporting the arts,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.Based in Green Hills, The Community Foundation oversees more than 615 charitable funds. In the past 16 years, the foundation has distributed approximately $320 million to community programs and institutions through endowments and unrestricted and memorial funds.
Lehman said the creation of the Web site is an extension of the CFMT’s mission to “connect generosity with need.”
“We recognized a need to help arts organizations build attendance and support, and we believe NowPlayingNashville.com is an effective vehicle to do so. NowPlayingNashville.com is a product of years of conversations and in-depth research with many community partners.”
Albie Del Favero, publisher of The City Paper, said NowPlayingNashville.com is an important asset to the city. As such, the paper can benefit from the alliance with CFMT.
“Comprehensive event listings are a critical component of any good newspaper,” Del Favero said. “Our partnership with NowPlayingNashville.com now gives us the ability to provide readers with complete listings in a format that most prefer - online - and powered by a search mechanism that is the best I’ve seen anywhere.”
Lehman describes NowPlayingNashville.com as the most complete and wide-ranging arts and entertainment Web site serving Middle Tennessee. Area happenings are listed in categories, which include music, theater, dance, visual arts and museums, kids and families, Tennessee history and heritage, festivals, sports and recreation, books and poetry, film and video and free events. Each listing includes a description, date, times, location, cost and even a map for driving ease. While most events are family friendly, those that are for adults are marked 18 or 21 and up so parents know when it’s best to leave youngsters at home. People can search for events by category, venue or date.
In March, only seven months after launching, the Web site - a part of the Artsopolis network - enjoyed 37,000 unique visitors.
“The fact that the number of unique visitors grows each month demonstrates that people are discovering and returning to the Web site,” she said.
People can subscribe to NowPlayingNashville.com’s “E-XCLUSIVES!” to receive weekly e-mail updates about featured events and special promotions.
“Subscribers are taking advantage of discount ticket opportunities, from a 20-percent-off ticket to a buy-one-get-one-free deal,” she said. “They are participating each week in promotions to win tickets and passes, from locals to out-of-town visitors who are planning ahead for trips. As the discount ticket program launches this summer, we expect to reach even more subscribers through additional special offers.”
In addition to The City Paper, NowPlayingNashville.com is sponsored by numerous civic, charitable and business entities. Arts organizations are also taking an active role supplying and uploading their own event information, Lehman said. Many of them have taken the opportunity to provide discount tickets to subscribers of NowPlayingNashville.com’s weekly update.
Currently, more than 600 organizations and venues are listed on the site, and more than 1,000 current and upcoming events are listed at any given time, she added.
“We are overwhelmed by the positive feedback and the number of unique visitors the site garners monthly,” Lehman said. “The partnership with The City Paper will help us continue this momentum.”
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