Subscribe Now!

Most people won't know who he was, but Danny Newman was almost single-handedly responsible for the way non-profit arts organizations organize their seasons and market their tickets. His mantra "Subscribe Now" was immortalized in what is the textbook for anyone who sells tickets in a performing arts organization.

He was officially press agent for Lyric Opera of Chicago for 42 years (a term he apparently preferred and a job at which he was peerless). But his reach went much farther than that. He developed their subscription model and then brought it to other arts organizations throughout the country. Although I'm sure that some might not even be aware, he created the way that theaters, symphonies, and opera companies do business today. Most performing arts companies could not be solvent without a strong subscription base. It is the easiest and most cost effective way to ensure that a company sells enough tickets to survive.

Of course, there are many (myself included) who feel that patterns are changing and that audiences are less willing to commit to full season subscriptions. Trends seem to indicate that younger buyers are buying later and buying single tickets rather than subscriptions.

But without Danny Newman's pioneering work, I guarantee that fewer performing arts organizations (of all types) would exist today.

Danny Newman passed away yesterday at the age of 88.