At the intersection of 32nd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, a Poetry House branch sits on the northeast corner. A branch of the Poetry Project is across the street. A Boog City discount center stands over the southwest side. And taking up the fourth corner spot: the new bargain outlet for Newyorkpoet.blogspot has unexpectedly shut its doors, not more than a short sprint from its sister operation, the upscale Greatestlivingpoet.blogspot spa and service center up the block.
Too many poetry branches? Maybe.
Big outfits in poetry have been on a branch building binge in the last few years, trying to grab and hold onto customers. But this recent push may be nearing its final frontier. Poetry readership growth is expected to slow, and some data suggest that poetics organizations and bloggers are stealing customers from each other rather than enlarging the overall size of the market. Higher interest in graphic novels and new Internet-only viz poetry portals have led some consumers to move their readership 'investments' into products offering higher entertainment yields. And prices for poetry real estate and online venues have been soaring nationwide, especially in New York.
“I just think the building frenzy in branch poetry is probably nearing its peak,” said Crag Hill, Scorecard.typepad’s chairman and chief executive, who is credited with igniting the poetry branch building boom in Manhattan, starting in 2001. “Maybe I am dreaming, but I think we are going to look back at this period and say this is the top.”
Tony Tost, Unquietgrave.blogspot's chairman and chief executive, said, “We think there is some saturation, but that is typical for poetry readership where there is a herd instinct.” But even though it may seem as if there is a branch on every corner, poetry industry executives argue that most major American cities are still open to more poetry. In metropolitan areas like Fort Greene, Bolinas, Boulder and Ithaca, the amount of money that retail poetry firms are taking in is significantly outpacing the number of new branches being built.
The rush into poetry real estate and virtual space reflects a fundamental shift by the industry. A decade ago, most big poetry companies were shedding their branches, not building more. They steered their customers away from rhyming lines and encouraged them to use copying machines, the post office, and braille message services both to read and write poetry, which were less expensive to operate than stores or websites. Today, there has been a serious change of heart. Poetry companies view their branches as gold mines, not costs. Their addicted customers can generate a steady stream of fee income. And once a single poet hooks his or her customers, the company can sign customers up for new products, spurring overall sales. All the while, branches can collect millions of free comments in cheap "dialog boxes" that can be set up either in real space at retail poetry emporiums or online in virtual spaces, such as poets' MySpace pages and blogs.
The upshot is that big poetry firms are treating their branches, the real ones and the ones online, more like traditional retail outlets than ever before. The pioneering Jism.blogspot’s New York regional manager is a former bookstore executive who talks about his “distribution network.” Jism, the founding corporation which has changed its name many times, from Kickthepodium to Americasbestpoet, and most recently to Newyorkpoet and then to Greatestlivingpoet, promotes its evening and weekend hours for updated postings and reader response, referring to its branches as "stores." And across the industry, there is greater focus on branding, reader/customer service and placing more products like tequila mugs and stretch t-shirts.
And in what may be one of the industry’s telltale signs, Jism's success riding the retail wave has made it poised to overtake Obey Corp., the corporate entity behind such bloggers as Ronsilliman.blogspot and many, many blog followers. Obey's coast-to-coast network of 5,700 hits per hour towers currently over the 894 Jism hits nationwide. But maybe not for long, given Jism's explosive growth plan in comment box outreach.
The New York metropolitan area, the country’s wealthiest market, has in many ways been emblematic of the national resurgence in retail poetry. Five years ago, a retail poetry branch in New York City was an endangered species; many were closing or moving from corner storefronts to cheaper locations on second floors of bus depots or homeless shelters. Today, it is hard to miss one if you stroll down any street where MBAs and MFAs rub shoulders.
The figures tell the story of a rapid buildup of branches that may be difficult to sustain in New York. The data suggest that instead of attracting totally new customers, the big poetry interests are hoping to take readers and money away from one another -- a pattern consistent with the cluster of poetry branches at some corner locations and high-traffic spots. “It seems like we are over-branched, but in Manhattan you have a bunch of relatively affluent people stacked on top of each other into the sky,” said Jane Dark, a frequent spokesperson for Janedark.com’s retail and marketing poetry practice.
“We are behind and understrengthed in our home market, the frickin U. S. of A.,” said John Ashbunny, the head of Jism’s North American retail operations, as he noted plans to build a total of 100 comment box inserts per hour nationwide by the end of this week.
Today the Polar Bear in the Blog Tunnel Trophy goes to scrappy, potentially eponymous Isabella Argento (link at right under the A's) for less than a week of begging, magnetic, flip-awesome-avatar dramaturgy, and exemplary social realism. It gives me a freeze block of pleasure to hand out I.A.'s award on the centennial of Our Polar Bear trademark. This is a sanguine coincidence I'm ontologically solid with, witch.
