Benjamin Genocchio

Renowned arts journalism innovator, Benjamin Genocchio has been appointed as Editor-in-chief for Incollect Magazine. Previously he was associated with New York's Armory Show where he was the Executive Director. In an exclusive interaction with Wendy Buckley from Salon Art + Design, he shared insights about his plans for the magazine and return to innovation in journalism.

Benjamin Genocchio is innovating in arts journalism with the establishment of Incollect Magazine as an online magazine as part of Incollect.com, a design and art marketplace online. As part of the mission, he is taking on the re-branding of Antiques & Fine Art Magazine as Incollect Magazine, a quarterly print publication.

Exclusive interview with Wendy Buckley

Tell me why you decided to join Incollect.com, a design and art marketplace?

I've spent nearly 25 years in arts journalism and most of it is in publishing, innovating, and building up publications. One of the things I have learned is that you need to attach journalism to a revenue source and where there is not a direct subscriber base or advertising you need to align what it is you are doing with transactions it provides relevant market content for those who are engaged in those markets but it also supports the best journalism. There is a place for a good profitable niche journalism site attached to transactions.

How does art and design journalism support a marketplace website?

John Smiroldo started Incollect.com 7 years ago as a tool to present quality art and design to a wider global audience and now he has hundreds of paying dealers on the site. Part of that is also providing information that is very much needed to inform purchasing decisions. That is the same strategy that I used to originally conceive and build Artnet News from scratch: if you own the information that informs a purchasing decision you own the transaction and so when I saw what an amazing job John had done in building up a strong subscriber-based gallery network, I knew that if we also bolted on a proper magazine and information tool then that would help support the clients, the dealers, but also help their other clients, the collectors, make transactions.

Why continue with a print publication?

Antiques & Fine Art magazine has a 22-year history. It was founded by John Smiroldo and has a loyal and avid readership. We want to build on that but at the same time acknowledge that the market for this kind of material is going to be inherently limited in the future, so we will be expanding the editorial mission to encompass the range of design and art offerings available on our successful sister marketplace website Incollect.com.

To better reflect this expanded content, the magazine will also change its name to Incollect Magazine to consolidate the brands and will be published every quarter as a quality publication. We not only want to build on the strengths of Antiques & Fine Arts magazine but also acknowledge that art and design are visual art forms and that print is still a wonderful vehicle to display objects and images.

So you see ongoing advantages and synergy to having both print and digital publications, even today?

Yes, absolutely. Combining the strength of an online marketing platform with a print magazine benefits both the readers and advertisers. The commitment to expanding the publication content comes with a commitment to expanding our audience: in conjunction with changing the name of the magazine, the digital version of the magazine will be fully available to our online readership of many millions monthly to help support and promote our partner dealers. Integration between print and online means we will cover more subjects, reach many more people and serve our dealers better. More content on more subjects.

What else is new about Incollect Magazine?

There is going to be a strong focus on art, whereas you know I have strong expertise a Ph.D. in art history as well years of writing as a critic for the New York Times and I am the author and editor of 7 books on the visual arts. We are building, and expanding the art vertical based on the assumption that there is no meaningful distinction between creativity in the art, design, craft, furniture fields— its' all creativity and a gallery showing art can and does show design while a gallery showing design can also show art. To try to segregate those things, especially for a site like Incollect.com does not make much sense especially when we have so many designers shopping on the site. People when furnishing homes want to create integrated interiors. Art is merging into a larger, overall market category of collectible culture.

I like this idea of collectible culture we see that at the Salon Art+Design, the art fair which I work on. I guess we have always felt art and design existed in the same space, hence the name of the fair!

That's funny, yes, you were the first to be onto this and I think you were right about it and in truth, your fair does a great job of integrating these new cultural collectibles, items in a range of previously discrete categories that now pretty much all overlap art, design, outsider art, folk art, industrial design, jewelry, even luxury collectible beverages! It's about rarity and beauty and finding things that help define you as a person and that is what a website like Incollect.com or an art fair like Salon Art+Design provides collectors.

He has had a long career in art journalism, beginning as the National Art Critic for the Australian Newspaper in Sydney. He has spent a decade at the New York Times and was the Editor-In-Chief of Art & Auction Magazine and Artinfo.com for 6 years before founding Art net News for which he was the Editor-in-Chief.