Flatiron Books has hired Liz Keenan as associate publisher, starting January 6. She is currently executive director of publicity for Hudson Street Press and Plume. She will be responsible for planning and executing all marketing and publicity for new nonfiction line, which plans to begin publishing in January 2015.
On the Sunday, the NYT’s public editor revealed that in 2005 the newspaper was compelled to publish the “blockbuster story by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau about a secret Bush administration program to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants” after a 13-month delay in large part because of the pressure of a forthcoming book by Risen. “Few doubt that Mr. Risen’s book was what took an essentially dead story and revived it in late 2005. ‘Jim’s book was the driving force,’ Mr. Lichtblau said.” Margaret Sullivan notes, “The Times published the story with a couple of guns held to its head: First, the knowledge that the information in the article was also contained in a book by Mr. Risen, State of War, whose publication date was bearing down like a freight train.”
Risen as author-journalist remains on the front lines to this day. Last week an Appeals Court agreed to wait until Risen petitions the Supreme Court to review his case on whether journalistic shield protects him from revealing his sources for some of the information in the book.