All men are not created equal when it comes to getting a story in the New York Times. A perfect example is the Internet story that appeared in the Monday, October 8th, edition about Art.sy, an online start up that just went live this week. Art.sy is a free repository of fine art images and an art appreciation guide. The reason why this company was profiled, is because of its pedigree. The investors read like a Who’s Who in the world of art, Internet, and finance.

The father of the 25-year old founder, Carter Cleveland, is an art writer and his mother is a financier. Both were cleverly not identified. Investors are gallerist Larry Gagosian, art-world figure Dasha Zhukova, Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi, Eric Schmidt of Google, and Jack Dorsey of Twitter. John Elderfield, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, is an adviser.

Now you can accuse me of being cynical and jealous, but I’ve been around long enough to know that a three-day old company does not get profiled in the NY Times, much less a sizeable story. This was a clear case of connections, connections, connections. I have been repeatedly told by the Times that they only write about tech companies that attract record breaking crowds or have proven to be financially successful.

Which category does this fit into?

What is so glaring is the caption below Carter Cleveland’s picture. “Carter starts his work day with yogurt, fruit and cereal.” Who wrote this story, his fairy godmother? In all honesty, I love art and I think a company like this is something I would frequent. However, I must say there have been other companies like it and similar ones still exist. Anyone who has been in the business as long as I have knows that the chances for a company like Art.sy to make it, is going to take a lot of money, more than any of these deep pockets will be willing to part with.

The worse thing that mom and dad could have done for little Carter was helping him get this story planted. He is now going to believe his own PR and will not be able to tough it out against the street kids of the Internet who are prepared to sweat.

Still, I wish Art.sy the best of luck. I truly do.

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