Theatre Works’ Future is Online

L.A. Theatre Works would seem to be in an enviable position: The nonprofit corporation stakes a claim as the only organization that regularly records spoken-word plays in the United States.

Its unique library of more than 250 contemporary and classical theater productions, most recorded live for broadcast on National Public Radio, have won myriad creative awards.

Add to that an ambitious schedule of producing 14 annual spoken-word productions at the Skirball Cultural Center, and anyone can understand why L.A. Theatre Works has an international reputation and collaborative relationships with the BBC in London, Voice of America and the Smithsonian Institution.

But when veteran Los Angeles business technology consultants Rohit Shukla and Jon Goodman took a look at the group’s challenges, they concluded that new technology and potentially lucrative new markets are passing L.A. Theatre Works by.

“They are thinking about traditional radio and selling audiocassettes through a catalog, instead of thinking about all the other opportunities out there,” Goodman said.

Goodman and Shukla reviewed producing director Susan Albert Loewenberg’s concerns about the need to network the group’s computers, add DSL Internet connections and upgrade its Web site--https://www.latheatreworks.com--to enable online sales of its audiocassettes.

Their frank response was that Loewenberg was asking for help for all the wrong reasons.

“Their internal computer issues are trivial,” Shukla said. “They’ve got the requisite number of computers and their system just needs tweaking here and there. They can get their headquarters networked relatively easily. That’s not a problem.”

Instead, the consultants said L.A. Theatre Works should identify new-technology markets such as Internet radio and use them to expand the group’s audience.

“They need to investigate and understand the new channels of distribution that are already coming online and know where their audience is going to migrate as a result,” Shukla said. “Everything about the organization has to revolve around this new technology.”

While the technology to integrate the Internet with television is still being developed commercially, Internet and radio convergence is already happening. L.A. Theatre Works needs to leverage its affiliations wisely with other organizations--like local NPR station KCRW--that are already attuned to the evolving marketplace, the consultants said.

Net, Satellite Radio Can Catch Ear of Millions

Internet radio can reach the 100 million global users of the Internet, Goodman noted. “This is an easy way for L.A. Theatre Works to find a market of maybe 500,000 people who are dying to have spoken-word productions going on in the background of their lives, instead of music,” she said.

Goodman said L.A. Theatre Works also needs to take into account satellite radio technology, which will get a boost when many 2001 model cars come equipped with satellite radio capability.

L.A. Theatre Works’ productions, featuring well-known actors such as John Lithgow, Marsha Mason and Ed Asner performing the works of playwrights such as David Mamet, Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Miller, are already being recorded in DAT (digital audio tape) format. The next step is to stream them live over the group’s Web site.

Digital recordings “could be re-purposed to various markets a thousand different ways--including by audiotape and CD and Internet radio and on satellite radio broadcasts,” Goodman said.

The group would not have to maintain its own library under this scenario, or worry about the eventual quality decay of physical DATs and CDs.

“We definitely intend to follow their recommendation to capture new productions digitally and archive the old material into digital format and then rent space on a server and put all of [the plays] there. It will be much more flexible for us to do it that way,” Loewenberg said.

Shukla and Goodman recommended that the costly process of digitizing the existing library might be achieved through a joint development deal with a distributor that wants to license L.A. Theatre Works’ productions.

“L.A. Theatre Works would forgo an upfront fee for the rights until the cost of development is recouped, at which point royalty income would be forthcoming,” the consultants wrote in their make-over report. “The subsequent cost of replication of the digitized product is minimal.”

The first use of the repackaged digital content might be to market it to companies that prepare in-flight audio broadcasts for the airlines, Goodman said. One of these companies could be a candidate for negotiating the development deal that would allow for the group’s material to be digitized.

Another logical market is licensing deals with the many companies that package radio programming and transmit it via satellite to outlets all over the world, Shukla said.

“If I can have CNN on in the background while I’m working on spreadsheets, why not a spoken-word play?” Shukla said.

The new revenue that could be created through these markets alone would help pay for such things as a sophisticated upgrade of the group’s Web site.

Loewenberg initially thought of accomplishing that by soliciting deeply discounted or pro bono work from a local Web developer. But Goodman and Shukla advised that she make that Plan B, in case the new revenue doesn’t flow as freely and as fast as they predict, and pay market value for the upgrade if possible.

“When you get pro bono work done, it might take a year and it might take three years to be completed. Folks who offer to help have good intentions, but they get busy and they have to worry about their bottom line and do the paying jobs first,” Goodman said.

The Web site should include electronic commerce capabilities, so that consumers can order plays online, either by downloading them, or having them delivered as CDs or audiocassettes.

Consultants See Web Playing Essential Role

The Web site will eventually become the primary channel for distribution of the group’s assets, the consultants predicted. That would save L.A. Theatre Works the expense of printing and mailing 100,000 catalogs and designing packaging and graphics for its audiotapes, which are sold in music and bookstores.

Part of the revamping of the Web site should include an interactive archive, searchable by author and play genre, so that consumers can find products easily, Shukla said. Also, L.A. Theatre Works can build a database on its clients and what they are buying.

They can also use the Web site for cross-promotional agreements with other cultural groups such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Museum of TV and Radio.

Loewenberg loved this idea.

“That is the beauty of our spoken-word products,” she said. “When we get them on the Internet, we can include links to actor and author fan sites; Web sites that are subject-specific, such as women’s sites or African American sites; or gift Web sites. There are a million ways to do it.”

Another phase of the operation that Goodman and Shukla examined was the group’s educational outreach program, which brings the group’s audio theater collection, accompanied by curriculum study guides for teachers, to 34,000 secondary public schools around the country at no charge.

Again, instead of having to mail out tapes and publish and print expensive curriculum guides in hard copy format, the consultants recommended that the Web site be designed so that participating Internet-linked schools could download the plays and teacher’s guides, or even participate in broadcasts scheduled from the Web site at specific times.

Charitable foundations should be contacted about grants for digitizing the group’s plays so they can be distributed online, Shukla added. Loewenberg also picked up on the potential for this idea.

“We would love to see teachers going online to discuss the broadcasts with other teachers, and classrooms talking to each other about what they’ve heard, or participating in question-and-answer sessions with the actors,” she said.

The advice given to her by Goodman and Shukla has led Loewenberg to set new goals for L.A. Theatre Works, some of which the group has already begun to accomplish.

“We want to brand the L.A. Theatre Works name so it’s synonymous with quality, get everything up on a server, figure out every possible way to market ourselves on the Web site, and explore the possibilities of Internet radio and delivering our product by downloading from the Web site,” she said.

“The thing that Jon and Rohit really made clear to us is the future and how to approach it.”

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This Week’s Company Make-Over

Company: L.A. Theatre Works

* Type of business: Radio theater, audio publishing, educational outreach

* Producing director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

* Annual revenue: $1.2 million

* Where company is based: Venice

* Founded: 1974, began producing radio drama in 1987

* Employees: 10

* How company is financed: Earned revenue from theater box office sales, royalties, and sales of plays on audiocassette, as well as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, city of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, private foundations, corporate and individual donations.

* Company status: Nonprofit corporation.

* Products: Largest collection of audio theater productions in the U.S., including works by Arthur Miller, George Bernard Shaw, Joyce Carol Oates, Jose Rivera and others, performed by actors such as Richard Dreyfuss, Julie Harris, Nathan Lane, James Earl Jones, Amy Irving, Jason Robards and Annette Bening.

Main business problems

Need to grow organization and reach diverse market segments within constraints of limited, nonprofit budget. Wants to update corporate technology, including Web site, network and hardware.

Company’s goal

Expansion of ‘plays on tape’ business, educational outreach programs and Web presence. Upgrade technology to network internal users and systems and manage Web site.

Recommendations

* Establish L.A. Theatre Works as the premier provider of electronically distributed spoken-word content around the globe.

* Record new and archived products in digital format to enable electronic distribution and house permanently on computer server.

* Explore opportunities to sell products in ‘re-purposed’ new-technology formats, including Internet radio, satellite radio and airline audio entertainment markets.

* Use funding from new markets to develop Web site’s audio streaming capabilities and have it become the main channel of distribution for digitized products. Add e-commerce capability as the primary means of delivering audio theater content to multiple channels.

Meet the Consultants

Rohit Shukla is president and CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance. Under his leadership, LARTA has been recognized at home and abroad as a focal point for information, investment and business strategy in Southern California.

Jon Goodman is executive director of the Annenberg Incubator Project at USC, one of the original high-tech business incubators in Los Angeles. Goodman is personally involved with more than a dozen start-up companies.