InTheater Magazine

InTheater Magazine

InTheater Magazine on the webIn the summer of 1999, I negotiated an investment deal to try and save InTheater Magazine from shutdown with publisher Michael A. Parker and his dad, Richard Parker of Parker Publishing & Communications. InTheater covered Broadway and Off Broadway quite extensively, as well as London’s West End, regional theatre, New York cabaret, etc.

The proposal was to move their offices into mine (cheaper space), retain editorial and photography staff, increase North American staff presence in major cities, find a cheaper, more central printer (not the Parkers printer), within a year, achieve a 40% digital/60% print strategy, evolving over 10 years to 70% digital/30% print strategy with an emphasis on visuals.  Sadly, it was not accepted.  The magazine folded later in the year. Some good and talented people lost their jobs.

Prior to that, I had established a web presence for InTheater as part of my larger Buy Broadway.com/Theatre.com business, using snippets and features where the lackluster magazine family management would agree to provide content and I would use that content to try and drive subscription sales to them.  I also hired various leading theatre journalists such as Ken Mandelbaum to write exclusively for the InTheater site.

I guess in hindsight, this was the moment of confluence of print vs. digital…  I was ahead of my time, they were behind the times.

InTheater Magazine April 3 1998 Julie Newmar Martin InTheater Magazine 30 InTheater Magazine 28 InTheater Magazine 37 InTheater Magazine 32 InTheater Magazine 31 InTheater Magazine 11 InTheater Magazine 33 InTheater Magazine 34 InTheater Magazine 26 InTheater MagazineInTheater Magazine InTheater Magazine 38InTheater Magazine 53 InTheater Magazine 1998InTheater Magazine 12 InTheater Magazine Sept 26 1997 First look at InTheater Magazine 10 InTheater Magazine 25 InTheater Magazine January 11 1999 Alan Cumming Stars InTheater Magazine Feb 15 1999 WWWInTheater Magazine June 5 1998 Tony Nominations Julie InTheater Magazine 18 InTheater Magazine 14 InTheater Magazine 24 InTheater Magazine 54InTheater Magazine 21InTheater Magazine 27InTheater Magazine 17 InTheater Magazine 15 InTheater Magazine 19 InTheater Magazine 36 InTheater Magazine 13 InTheater Magazine 20 InTheater Magazine 22 InTheater Magazine 16 InTheater Magazine 23 Iceman Cometh 1999 Broadway intheater coverInTheater Magazine RagtimeInTheater Magazine 110 InTheater Magazine April 1998 InTheater magazine December 5 1997 InTheater Magazine December 25 1998 InTheater Magazine July 10 1998 InTheater Magazine August 1999InTheater Magazine June 1998 InTheater Magazine November 27 1998 InTheater Magazine November 28 1997 InTheater Magazine October 17 1997 InTheater Magazine October 24 1997 InTheater Magazine October 30 1998 InTheater Magazine 112 InTheater Magazine 113InTheater Magazine 115 InTheater Magazine 116 InTheater Magazine 117 InTheater Magazine 118 InTheater Magazine 119 InTheater Magazine 120 InTheater Magazine 121 InTheater Magazine 122 InTheater Magazine 123 InTheater Magazine 124 InTheater Magazine 125 InTheater Magazine 142 InTheater Magazine 143 InTheater Magazine 141 InTheater Magazine 126 InTheater Magazine 127 InTheater Magazine 128

Sadly, a loss for the Broadway and theatre industry in general.

The Broadway theatre supersite Buy Broadway OnlineAs Founder and CEO of Theatre.com and BuyBroadway.com.  The pioneer in moving the Broadway industry onto the internet. The theatre press branded me as “Toby is the man pushing theatre, kicking and screaming, into cyberspace.” What started in 1989 as a Broadway industry service called ShowCall via dialup BBS for members of the League of American Theatre Producers evolved onto the world wide web in the early 90’s, and shortly after this, the vast majority of Broadway shows (starting with my production of Victor/Victoria) and theatrical organizations followed. The “Super site of Broadway” became a publicly traded company, prior to my re-branding it as Theatre.com at the Minskoff Theatre.

The global theater supersite theatre.comDescribed by Variety Magazine as a “marketing powerhouse“, it was the single largest theatre community in the world with over 180,000 active members (in the 1990’s this was massive). From buying official Broadway tickets and souvenirs, providing detailed global show listings, interactive show study & educational guides, live streaming shows and events (including many Opening Nights live broadcasts), industry news from major theatre journalists, pictures and videos, games, messaging directly to Broadway cast’s backstage or even licensing a musical, theatre.com offered it all in a single, easy-to-use interface to theatregoers globally.

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