The goal of the website re-launch was to provide our core audience, such as high-net worth collectors, with one-stop resource for arts and culture information in it’s many forms. We have exclusive features that cater to their needs. We know this is important—we have a strong user base with a high percentage of repeat visits.
The re-launch was also a new brand direction, with a completely new look and feel. We sought to address the changing needs of our audience. And through user research discovered that we could build a better product that more directly suits current arts and the art market on the internet. ARTINFO is as dynamic and global as the cultural scene it covers.
Give me an example of something your readers discovered on your site that they probably wouldn’t have known otherwise.
At the Sotheby’s Contemporary Auction sales last month, the two and a half hour sale generated a total of £94,701,550 ($188,853,831), just short of the £96.6 million pre-sale high estimate. Ten records for highest lots sold at auction for individual artists were set. All of these records are searchable in our Art Sales Index, ARTINFO’s auction lots database tool, which is free to anyone who visits ARTINFO.
The Art Sales Index is a tool that allows individuals to search lots at auction dating back to the 1920’s. Unlike some of our competitors, ARTINFO offers our database free to the public. And although used predominantly by collectors and auctions world professionals, the tool itself provides a wealth of information about artists their works of art; about historical market data, documenting the creative practice over a broad period of time.
ARTINFO is part of Louise Blouin Media—the international art publisher with strong titles such as Art+Auction, Modern Painters, Culture+Travel, Gallery Guide and the Art Sales Index and Gordon’s Data Publications. The strength of our offering is that ARTINFO reaches into all of these areas through our extensive editorial coverage, breadth of categories and depth of insider knowledge within the areas of arts and culture.
The other unique characteristic of ARTINFO and Louise Blouin Media products is the lifestyle component —there’s an awareness that important media shapes markets mindsets.
What are your goals in 2008?
Our goals for 2008 are to continue to build on the strengths of Louise Blouin Media print products, further expanding our online platform. We are extending the reach of our core online offerings to provide focal points for travel and auctions content, as well as meaningful contextual links amongst the depth of content we already have online. New and ongoing efforts to develop podcasts, video, and other new channels will provide a new means of delivering our content to our audience. ARTINFO is a content matrix and the possibilities for delivery are infinite.
A new energy has changed the world of art. There are record levels of investment; a heightened interest, especially from the affluent market; and a consumer mindset that prizes meaning over material. As art becomes more deeply integrated into fashion, society, and popular culture, our challenge becomes harnessing this energy into a meaningful experience for our visitors. And the internet is quickly becoming THE platform of communication.
Who is your audience?
The strength of the ARTINFO audience is that we have high-net worth individuals who are not only collectors driven by the analytical aspects of the market like indices and trends, participating in the auctions world and global art fairs; but who are also passionate about the arts and the way that the arts impact humanity.
ARTINFO has a strong base in the US and the UK but reaches an international clientele with representation in all parts of the world: Asia, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East; and Africa.
