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Our Mission - and We've Chosen to Accept ItDateline: 28th May, 2006Competition is hotting up in the British theatre internet world! Recently a couple of sites have added video coverage of events such as first nights. Yet another is doing photographic coverage of first night guests and audio interviews are also appearing. It's all part of a scramble for visitors. And we've recently seen a new kid on the block, although this particular young site comes from a well-established family, Broadway.com. So why isn't the BTG jumping onto this particular bandwagon? Why no audio or video? Why no social coverage of first nights? There are two reasons: first, I'm not sure that real theatregoers are particularly interested in the kind of Hello Magazine style of celebrity-spotting that first night photo or video coverage suggests. but mainly because it is expensive. A number of sites are now charging for access to certain sections of their content. One has, for a number of years, charged for its newsletter, another for its archive (both annual fees), and yet another is now charging a monthly membership fee for access to a large part of the site. Not that the BTG is opposed to money! We would dearly love to be paid for our efforts - hence the adverts we carry, such as the one at top right of this page - but we really do believe that all our content should be free. At present we make enough money to cover hosting and other inescapable costs, but otherwise no one, from the editor to the very occasional contributor, gets paid. We would love to be able to pay reviewers who contribute so much to the site, but we will only be able to do so when we carry sufficiently well-paid advertising. We will not, at any time, charge for access to the site, in whole or in part, or for the Newsletter. We will continue to provide what our visitors seem to want: news and reviews of theatre throughout Britain, not just in London and certainly not just in the West End. The West End and London theatre in general are very important - they are the showcase of British theatre - but there is so much going on in the regions, and not just shows which are touring nationally, and it is our aim to cover regional theatre as fully as we can. That's out aim - our mission statement, if you like - but if anyone can put any paid advertising our way, we won't refuse! Peter Lathan
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