Arts Illuminated Pty Ltd, the publisher of Limelight, is looking for a new publisher to take over the magazine in the immediate future, or for other financial support to tide it over while a new publisher is sought. Without this, the publication will close.

Limelight is Australia’s leading arts magazine with a special focus on classical music and opera. In recent years, it has also increased its coverage of theatre, dance and the visual arts. At a time when arts coverage in Australia is diminishing, Limelight has an increasingly vital role to play, given the informed, in-depth, long-form, lively coverage of the arts that it offers. No one else in Australia is covering classical music and opera as widely or reviewing such a large number of classical CDs. It also has a very active website, which was redesigned recently, on which news, reviews, interviews and features are published daily, with online traffic increasing dramatically in recent times.

Limelight has come a long way in the last four years,” says Clive Paget, Editor from 2015 to November 2017, then Editor at Large based in New York. “Previously the ABC’s classical music magazine, licensed to Haymarket Media, it was largely print readership only and essentially narrow in focus. Over the last three years my goal was to broaden the offering, increase our profile and build respect for us as an independent voice creating intelligent, lively and sometimes challenging content for the casual arts aficionado as well as the industry practitioner. I believe the brand is now far more widely read, especially in the online sphere, while by recruiting the voices of Australia’s most respected arts commentators we have considerably increased our influence and market share at a time when arts coverage has been decimated across most major media outlets.”

“Everyone working at Limelight believes passionately in the importance of the magazine, and the crucial role that it plays in the Australian arts scene. We are all hoping that a new buyer will be found to ensure its future,” says Jo Litson, Editor from November 2017.

“The arts give us agency to express the otherwise inexpressible. What is existence without expression? Limelight is one of the great voices for the arts in Australia,” says Andrew Batt-Rawden, Director of Arts Illuminated Pty Ltd, which has been publishing Limelight since 2014.

“We use it as a vehicle to share our inspiration and provide knowledge, inquiry, discovery. The values that drive Limelight, its business, masthead and team are a timeless dedication to creative expression and enrichment of culture. In these past four years, Limelight has been loved and nurtured to transform into what it is now: a widely read, appreciated and loved publication that supports our artists and audiences with shared inspiration. It is time for Limelight to enter a new phase. Although we don’t know what that is yet, we hope that we find a new publisher that is as inspired by creative expression as we are.”


If you would like to discuss supporting Limelight through either significant gift or purchase, please contact Andrew Batt-Rawden on andrew@limelightmagazine.com.au

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