Vandan's Blog

The Media Company's Five Arms

As previously established, there is a gaping deficiency in Toronto's art and culture scene. I'm writing these posts here as a way of articulating the changes I'd want to see and the products or services I'd like to see offered.

I outlined four cultural needs and how a mission-oriented media company could service each of them. Here's the simple one-line mission: celebrate and share art by South Asians in the GTA. A second line could include language about inspiring South Asians in the GTA to enjoy and support art created locally and building a trusted platform that's seen as a one-stop shop for high-quality content created by South Asians in the GTA.

5 Arms

This mission can achieved by a single platform that displays several related but different mediums:

  1. A blog that editorially profiles South Asian artists and explains the context, tells their story, and makes evident why their work matters (and also funnels readers to their stores if applicable)
  2. A blog that publishes journalistic, evergreen essays about South Asian arts and culture in the GTA (i.e., not news or politics)
  3. A podcast that highlights stories of South Asians in the GTA that are not being told anywhere in pop media. Emphasis on the interviewing and storytelling structures and prowess. Think This American Life for South Asians in the GTA.
  4. A subscription box that would deliver physical art created by South Asians in the GTA and featured on the blog to subscribers. This would be a way for artists to distribute their work and get paid while giving those with the means a way to fill their life with more South Asian-inspired art by local artists. 4.5. The subscription box would feature a magazine with think pieces, art, and cartoons. Think The New Yorker for South Asians in the GTA. The magazine would be known for its high-quality curation, clever voice, and sharp writing.
  5. An Instagram page that shares photos of artists and art profiled on the blog with captions that feature some of the highlights from the piece.

There's much more. Each of these arms are an entry point into the brand, pushing the flywheel to spin faster and faster. It's a media company so ads are the primary way I think it would make money, then paid subscriptions to the blog to access the back catalogue, but if the subscription box takes off, I'd want to remove ads entirely (and the paywall). I think the subscription box is the financial engine.

More to come, Vandan