Newspapers Beef Up Online Books Coverage
by Lynn Andriani and Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 12/17/2007
As newspapers devote less print space to books, many have amped up their book coverage online. Others, well, not so much. Below, a rundown of what a few of the country's leading regional dailies are doing and, opposite, a round-up what three of the country's biggest newspapers offer on the Web with their book coverage. None of these papers are running Web-exclusive reviews, but all, save for the San Francisco Chronicle, have some original content. Some editors are hoping the online book content will remind readers that, despite perceived cutbacks, their papers still care about and cover books. Phil Kloer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said he started the book blog there as a direct response to the negative press the paper got following the departure of book review editor Teresa Weaver.
| Los Angeles Times | The New York Times | The Washington Post | |
| www.latimes.com/features/books | www.nytimes.com/books | www.washingtonpost.com/bookworld | |
| Blog | “Jacket Copy” has posts almost every day. Posts are usually written by editors of the book review and range from riffs on articles from the print edition to news on indie publishing initiatives and writing programs at local schools. | In “Paper Cuts,” Book Review senior editor Dwight Garner dishes on books—sometimes tied to titles reviewed in print—and also does author q&as.; There is a recurring feature dedicated to authors' music playlists (archived online), à la iTunes' celebrity playlists. The site also has an archive of ads that ran in the Book Review dating back to the early 1960s. | “Short Stack” is a discussion blog. Each week a staff member recommends a list of five favorite books on a particular subject, fiction and nonfiction, new and backlist. Readers are invited to agree, disagree and post their own favorites. Book World editor Marie Arana said another blog will premiere “very soon.” |
| First Chapters | After January 1, the site will regularly run excerpts in conjunction with books it reviews. The plan is to pick two or three books per issue and run a chapter or some excerpt as an online sidebar to the review. | First chapters of books reviewed, or set to be reviewed, in the paper. There are over 2,000 chapters in the archives, as the Book Review was one of the first sections of the paper to go online. | “Chapter One” lets visitors read the first chapter of selected new books. All the books have been reviewed by the paper. This week: Antony and Cleopatra, a novel by Colleen McCullough, and Kids Are Americans Too, nonfiction by Bill O'Reilly with Charles Flowers. |
| Podcasts | After the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April, visitors could listen to podcasts of festival programming, including talks with Walter Mosley, T.C. Boyle and Jane Smiley. The site also had live online author chats from the festival and transcripts of conversations with authors. | Downloads of conversations with authors, critics and editors led by Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus and tied to reviews and essays from the latest print issue. Book Review editor Garner regularly pops up to talk as well. | Available through iTunes and updated weekly. This week's features Book World's Arana and Ron Charles and interviews with Christopher Buckley (Boomsday) and Geraldine Brooks (People of the Book). |
| Other Features | There are four Web-exclusive columns; a different one runs every Sunday: Ed Park's “Astral Weeks” (science fiction), Sarah Weinman's “Dark Passages” (mysteries), Richard Rayner's “Paperback Writers” (paperbacks) and Sonja Bolle's “Word Play” (children's books). Expanded bestsellers appear online, too. | An online discussion forum on classic books called “Reading Room,” hosted by NYTBR editors and featuring a changing cast of contributors. Readers can comment on posts and the discussion is updated frequently. Also, extended bestseller lists appear online, and on Fridays, a Books Update e-newsletter features content that will be published in the forthcoming issue. | An online roundtable occurs about once a week; editors field questions and comments on a book-related subject. And every Wednesday, Pulitzer-winning critic Michael Dirda takes readers' questions for a feature called “Book World Live.” The site posts links to Washington-area bookstores and groups reviews under headings like “On the Front Lines” (military, national security and intelligence-related books). |
