Letters to the Editor
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Popular Books Too?
There may be another reason that consumers don't care enough to champion book reviews. Most popular books (i.e. mysteries, sci-fi, romance) are not reviewed by newspaper book review sections. These kinds of books are considered "beneath" the book reviewers. But the newspaper movie reviewer doesn't review only foreign films and independents - you'll also find reviews of the latest slasher flick or mindless shoot-em-up adventure. You'll find reviews of fluffy musicals in the theatre section and you'll usually find reviews of the latest rockers in the music section. Newspapers even devote an entire section to guys running around and throwing things. But when it comes to books, only a few "elite" reads are considered worthy.
I read a variety of books, mysteries and romance along with more "literary" works. But since I have to go elsewhere to find reviews of genre fiction, I don't bother with the newspaper book review section very often - if it reviewed a wider selection of books I wanted to read, I might be more upset by its demise.
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What incredible irony-- and yet I am hopeful
A few weekends ago, I attended the Philadelphia Free Library's first annual Book Festival (where I happened to buy a number of books, not just because I needed/wanted them, but because I wanted to support several of them in particular).
The weather was wonderful and the event was well-attended. Truly a success. The only sour note of the weekend (I went both days) was when I was approached by someone wanting me to subscribe to the Philadelphia Inquirer. What incredible nerve! Obviously, neither he nor the paper knew anything about my reading habits, and they weren't trying to find out, either.* Just... how about buying our paper? (He grew sorry that he asked, and became a bit defensive. Someone should have prepared their sales force a bit better. How could they not expect to meet with resistance from previous, but now disgruntled customers?)
I kept my rant (to him) to a minimum (unlike here), but I had to tell him that they had lost me when they eliminated everything from the paper that made it worth my while, beginning with the book review supplement, which was reduced to a small section in another part of the paper (I can't even remember which one any more) before they eliminated it entirely, and then they started putting that odious Parade supplement in right next to the home-grown magazine section. Maybe it wasn't the very best Sunday magazine section in the country, but it was worth reading. I knew its days were numbered, though, as soon as I saw Parade.
For awhile, I did read some of the weekday paper online, but they kept changing the site and making it harder to read, and finally, I just gave up on it, because there were so many other online sites that didn't take forever to load, or have too many layers. (I wouldn't have cared about reading an ad or two, just the uwieldiness of the site.)
And, then, the following Wednesday, after the Book Festival, I watched Bill Moyers' special on the state of journalism. That was the final straw! I only wish I had seen it before the festival, because then I would have had something even more potent to tell the sales person.
Even though I've tried especially hard over the last 8 years to keep current on news and public affairs, mostly via online sites and PBS/NPR, I really didn't know about the significance of the contributions of the Knight-Ridder reporters Strobel and Landay re: the manipulations by the administration during the lead-up to the war. I had been skeptical enough at the time, but Moyers' report made me wonder why I didn't know about Strobel and Landay's series of reports, especially considering that the Inquirer was a Knight-Ridder paper at the time. Curious, no?
Apparently, not all of the K-R papers printed their stories because they were considered too controversial. Not too controversial for their courageous editor, but too controversial for the editorial decision makers stuck here in the east-coast news bubble. (And we think we have more and better access to information, living on the East Coast! Hah!) And the BigMediaGuys are wondering why they are having so much trouble with circulation and with angry customers/readers... It shouldn't be that hard to figure out.
Not only do real readers want to read about books, we also want to read the truth about the news, all of it, and not only what is deemed palatable enough for our tender patriotic loyalties.
I actually did a Lexis/Nexis search for stories by Strobel and/or Landay, in the Inquirer, and in Pennsylvania, but nothing here. Pittsburgh readers got all of the news, though.
Isn't it ironic that in the sale to McClatchey (who is carrying on the same high quality of reporting as before they bought K-R), the Philadelphia Inquirer was among those papers that they decided to sell, supposedly for market size and other business-related reasons. I have to wonder, though, if there was another, unspoken, but even more valid reason, for their not wanting to retain the Inquirer: the editorial decision makers.
Now, the paper is owned by an acknowledged conservative who must be rueing the day he took it on.
The Moral: Consistently adopting RightWing, GOP, NeoCon, and Conservative talking points, or even just their "framing" of issues, not only doesn't make for good news, it also doesn't make any money in the long term, and the short term doesn't last very long.
* Why I am hopeful? Because at least now we have proof positive that telling the truth really is a good business decision, and because there are people in a position to make a difference: "Macy's to Newspapers: Engage Audiences"
http://salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8P0B8I80.html
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Ooops, so sorry....
I meant to say, first, how much I appreciated this article, surely one of the best things I've read in Salon this week or this month, etc.
...but I got a little carried away.
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Dear Joan: Please ask David Kipen to contribute more often, writing about whatever he pleases, as long as he care as much about the topic as he does about this one. (I hate that question on flights, too!) Maybe he could alternate with David Silverman who has just contributed a compelling tale about his typesetting venture.