Orientation and impact of nonprofit museum web sites

Museums face increasing pressure to attract wider audiences. This requires an understanding of visitor expectations and motivations for visiting the ‘real’ museum. Websites can act as an attracting mechanism for ‘real’ museum visits. However, for the most part, museums have concentrated their efforts on attracting visitors to promotional efforts and collecting statistical data on the demographic profiles of visitors. Museum websites as a means of attracting audiences have been ignored in the research literature. This paper researches the role of museum websites in developing audiences with special attention to the attracting power of the websites for visitors. Content analysis of 40 Australian museum websites was conducted using a structured tool, WebNPattract, designed and tested specifically for the purpose. Content analysis results can be used for the purpose of strategic positioning of the museum and cultural tourism. The paper outlines five aspects of museums—museum offer; corporate governance; finding the museum; characteristics; and governance communication—and two approaches to museum websites: the ‘aesthetic’ and the ‘services’ perspectives. Marketing implications can be deduced from website orientation.

Pricing in the museum sector : the need to balance social responsibility and organisational viability

An essential component of marketing strategy is pricing. Pricing in museums, however, is problematic as issues beyond cost recovery or surplus, such as social responsibilities, need to be considered. This area of marketing is under researched. The aim of this study is to address the research gap by synthesising the literature on pricing strategy in the museum sector. The study found that there are a number of strategies being advocated with regard to pricing in the museum sector in the literature, each representing various perspectives of museology. A research agenda was proposed to assist marketers in the museum sector to meet their organisational needs, whilst balancing their social responsibilities.

Museum pricing : challenges to theory development and practice

The museum sector has undergone considerable change in the last few decades, which has been a result of both internal and external forces. The topic of pricing in museums, however, has attracted little interest from researchers in the field despite the sector's need to understand it better. This study aimed to address this gap in knowledge. Results of a comprehensive literature review on pricing highlight that the topic of pricing in museums is problematic, as a range of issues, social, political and often value-laden, must be considered before pricing decisions can be made. The study highlights that there is diversity in the sector with regard to pricing, but that museums generally adopt a unilateral approach to pricing. Researchers in entrepreneurial marketing have noted that conventional pricing theory is being turned on its head and they argue that deciding what prices to charge represents one of the more entrepreneurial strategies for organisations. This study indicates that, within the context of museums, marketers are failing to recognise and capitalise on such pricing opportunities. Approaches to setting multiple museum pricing strategies, depending on the market context, are proposed in this paper. In this way, knowledge of museum pricing can optimise the organisational outcomes of museums while continuing to meet their social responsibilities.

Changes in museum management : a custodial or marketing emphasis

In recent years museums have changed from being predominantly custodial institutions to becoming increasingly focussed on audience attraction. New emphasis is placed on museum-audience interactions and relationships. This change in the purpose and priorities of museums has impacted upon the nature of museum management. The recognition of new roles for museum directors and the need to appeal to differentiated audiences has created new challenges for previously traditional, custodial directors. This paper presents a conceptual framework for managing museums, taking account of the museum service context and the delivery of the museum service product. It then examines two museums, one in Ireland and one in Australia, both of which have a similar cultural history. The paper considers the different management styles for museum directors and how these different styles illustrate the changes in professional perspective from the traditional (a focus on custodial preservation) to the more current (a focus on educating and entertaining the public).

Museum marketing competing in the global marketplace

Museums have moved from a product to a marketing focus within the last ten years. This has entailed a painful reorientation of approaches to understanding visitors as customers; new ways of fundraising and sponsorship as government funding decreases; and grappling with using the internet for marketing. This book brings the latest in marketing thinking to bear on the museum sector taking into account both the commercial issues and social mission it involves. Carefully structured to be highly accessible the book offers:
* A contemporary and relevant and global approach to museum marketing written by authors in Britain, Australia, the United States, and Asia
* An approach that reflects the particular challenges museums of varying sizes face when seeking to market an experience to a diverse set of stakeholders: audience; funders; sponsors and government.
* A particular focus on museum marketing in the 'Information Age'
* Major case studies at the beginning and end of each section of the book, and smaller case studies within chapters The hugely experienced author team, includes both leading academics and practitioners to ensure the book has broad appeal and is both relevant, innovative and progressive in approach. It will be essential reading for students in museum studies, non-profit marketing, and arts management and marketing. It will also be equally relevant for professionals working in and managing museums and galleries, heritage attractions and ministries of arts.
* The most up-to-date treatment of marketing museums with a global approach
* Blend of academic and practitioner expertise to appeal to students and professionals seeking a contemporary and relevant approach
* Features a range of international case studies that demonstrate the museum experience and draw out the particular challenges that museums and galleries of varying sizes and types face in the global marketplace

A new definition of 'Museum'

At the national AGM of Museums Australia held on 22 Mar ch 2002, our association adopted a new definition of ‘museum’. This article aims to provide members and other readers with an understanding of the background to the change, and the potential offered to our sector by the new definition.

Ulster-New Zealand migration and cultural transfers / Brad Patterson

Books
Medievalism and the Gothic in Australian Culture. Edited by Stephanie Trigg.

What If? Australian History as It Might Have Been. Edited by Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer.

Disputed Histories: Imagining New Zealand's Pasts. Edited by Tony Ballantyne and Brian Moloughney.

The Myth of the Great Depression. By David Potts.

Memory, Monuments and Museums: The Past in the Present. Edited by Marilyn Lake.

Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective. Edited by Marilyn Lake and Ann Curthoys.

Island Ministers: Indigenous Leadership in Nineteenth Century Pacific Islands Christianity. By Raeburn Lange.

Texts and Contexts: Reflections in Pacific Islands Historiography. Edited by Doug Munro and Brij V. Lai.

Day of Reckoning. By Lachlan Strahan.

Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology. By Ian J. McNiven and Lynette Russell.

Recognising Aboriginal Title: The Mabo Case and Indigenous Resistance to English-Settler Colonialism. By Peter H. Russell.

Black Glass: Western Australian Courts of Native Affairs 1936-54. By Kate Auty.

Edward Eyre, Race and Colonial Governance. By Julie Evans.

Gender and Empire. By Angela Woollacott.

Uncommon Ground: White Women in Aboriginal History. Edited by Anna Cole, Victoria Haskins and Fiona Paisley.

Mixed Relations: Asian-Aboriginal Contact in North Australia. By Regina Ganter, with contributions from Julia Martinez and Gary Lee.

Botany Bay: Where Histories Meet. By Maria Nugent.

A Man of All Tribes: The Life of Alick Jackomos. By Richard Broome and Corinne Manning.

Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers. By Cassandra Pybus.

Over the Mountains of the Sea: Life on the Migrant Ships 1870-1885. By David Hastings.

Ulster-New Zealand Migration and Cultural Transfers. Edited by Brad Patterson.

From Paesani to Global Italians: Veneto Migrants in Australia. By Loretta Baldassar and Ros Pesman.

Ways of Seeing China: From Yellow Peril to Shangrila. By Timothy Kendall.

East by South: China in the Australasian Imagination. Edited by Charles Ferrall, Paul Millar and Keren Smith.

Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins. By Peter Edwards.

Kin: A Collective Biography of a Working-Class New Zealand Family. By Melanie Nolan.

Ida Leeson A Life: Not a Blue-Stocking Lady. By Sylvia Martin.

Will Dyson: Australia's Radical Genius. By Ross McMullin.

Francis De Groot: Irish Fascist Australian Legend. By Andrew Moore.

South by Northwest: The Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica. By Granville Allen Mawer.

From Woolloomooloo to 'Eternity': A History of Australian Baptists. 2 vols. Volume 1: Crowing and Australian Church (1831-1914), Volume 2: A National Church in a Global Community (1914-2005). By Ken R. Manley.