April 6th, 2021 – Breaking Down the Story: How ARTnews's Team Coverage of the Beeple NFT Auction Set the Standard

Arts Journalism's $69m Lesson for Financial Writers.

When a piece of easily reproduced digital art sold at auction for enough money to buy the four biggest mansions in Westchester County, both the financial press and the tech press were floored. And while arts journalists might have been as surprised as the rest of us, they weren't shocked. After all, it's their beat to cover the new, unprecedented and unfamiliar. As we financial writers delve more deeply into how technology is changing money, there's a lot to learn from our colleagues who report daily on how technology is changing art -- both its substance and its markets.

Some of the best reporting of the Beeple auction came from the team which veteran arts editor Marion Maneker led at ARTnews. He sits down to discuss with NYFWA how his site's coverage differed from that of other outlets.

Following the discussion, participants are invited to stick around for a bit of socializing and networking with other attendees in dedicated breakout rooms.

Marion Maneker is president and editorial director of Art Media, the Penske Media Corp. division that includes ARTnews, Art in America, and Art Market Monitor. Maneker has covered the art market for more than 20 years at New York magazine, the New York Times, the New York Sun and then through Art Market Monitor, which he founded in 2008. Previously, Maneker was the publisher of HarperBusiness, the business books division of HarperCollins, and founder of the Penguin Lives series of short biographies with James Atlas. 

He will be interviewed by NYFWA board member William Freedman, a freelance finance and technology writer whose work has appeared in Global Finance, AlphaSense, Macrotrends, Investor’s Business Daily, The Industry Spread, ChemicalWeek, Newsday, The Palm Beach Post, The Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel and many other business and general readership outlets. Freedman writes frequently on cryptocurrency and other blockchain-adjacent topics.

When: Tuesday, April 6th @ 7 p.m. (EDT)

RSVPs Mandatory to: contact@nyfwa.org

* Zoom Link & meeting password provided at time of RSVP