The Wig

For those of you who might not be aware, The Wig is a great little online arts and culture magazine for the Ottawa community. Originally published by The Hill Times, yesterday I found out that this great, for lack of a better word, publication, will no longer be supported by its publishers and is going on hiatus. I do not know the reasons behind this decision (though my best guess is that it is probably financial), but it makes me very angry.

When I first discovered The Wig, I was thrilled. Whereas arts coverage in the print media has declined over the last couple of years, online it seemed to be growing. And The Wig was was an absolute gem: a nice template, an interesting read and comprehensive coverage of almost every single arts event in town. I looked forward to receiving an email every morning with the day's "Sure Thing". On the theatre side, Holly Gordon quickly became one of my favourite reviewers in town for her intelligent, incredibly well-researched and often bang-on reviews.

Now, barely six months after it first came into existence, The Wig's future is uncertain.

I don't believe six months is not enough time to build up a proper audience base. Do we cut off the babies legs because he hasn't learned to walk yet? No, we give it time to grow and discover how to stand.

I know there's nothing I can do about it, but I just wanted to voice my concern here and wish the former staff all the best in their future endeavours.