As the NBCC first reported on their blog, the Washington Post will drop its standalone book review section: “The last issue of Book World in print will be the February 15, 2009 issue. Thereafter, content will be split between the Outlook section and Style & Arts on Sundays. Daily book reviews in Style will continue. The promise is that there will be four additional broadsheet pages in Outlook for book coverage and one additional page in Style & Arts. That’s an equivalent of 12 tabloid pages. (Book World is 16 pages.) Jonathan Yardley’s reviews will appear in Outlook. Michael Dirda’s […]
Reviews
Horn Book Sold
The Horn Book, Inc.–the Boston-based publisher of The Horn Book Magazine and The Horn Book Guide, which review over 4,000 children’s books annually–has been acquired by Ohio’s Media Source, best-known for their Junior Library Guild review and selection service for children’s and YA books. Horn Book will continue to run editorial operations from their Boston office. Editor-in-chief Roger Sutton says in the announce: “The expertise, enthusiasm, and resources that Media Source brings to the table will allow us to enlarge our audience while maintaining our independent viewpoint and high standards. Our print and digital publications will be refreshed, redesigned, and […]
Free Books, As Long As You Blog
Thomas Nelson has launched a formal program to enroll interested bloggers and provide them with free review copies of “select titles” in exchange for the promise of a posting of a review of at least 200 words on a blog and at Amazon.com. Nelson ceo and active blogger Mike Hyatt credits his own blog with inspiring the initiative. It “originally came from heightened interest on my blog, around two of our recent releases, Stephen Mansfield’s The Faith of Barack Obama and Lynne Spears’ Through the Storm. My readers, many of whom are active bloggers themselves, wanted to engage in the […]
Another Chronicle Book Editor to Leave
Regan McMahon, who took over as books editor at the San Francisco Chronicle when Oscar Villalon took a buyout, is now also take a buyout and leaving the paper. “When SF Weekly contacted McMahon Monday morning, she said people in the publishing world didn’t know about her imminent departure, and she feared that once they heard the news, they’d freak out. But she insists they shouldn’t worry — she’s been assured by higher-ups that the paper plans to name a new books editor and keep the section going.”SF Weekly
Issues of the Week: Reviews & Blogs, Again
The quickening dissection and/or disappearance of newspaper book reviews (and newspaper book-focused staff) produced a couple of pieces of commentary this week. First Da Capo senior director of publicity Lissa Warren wrote at the Huffington Post on “will blogs save books?” She criticizes blog coverage of books with a broad brush for, well, not being more like the traditional take-it-from-the-approved-and-salaried-experts reviews that are being eliminated. “I think book reviews on blogs — particularly those of the Blogspot variety — tend to be self-indulgent. Book reviewing bloggers need to move away from opinion in favor of judgment. How does the book […]
Former Editors of Los Angeles Times Book Review Protest Paper's Decision to End Weekly Section
Steve Wasserman e-mailed this letter, also signed by Sonja Bolle, Digby Diehl, and Jack Miles: As former editors of the Los Angeles Times Book Review (1975 through 2005), we are dismayed and troubled at the decision by Sam Zell and his managers to cease publishing the paper’s Sunday Book Review. This step signals the end of an era begun 33 years ago when Otis Chandler, then the paper’s publisher and owner, announced the debut of the weekly section. Since then, the growth of the Los Angeles metropolitan region and the avidity of its numerous readers and writers has been palpable. […]