LA Times to Fold Standalone Book Review
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 7/21/2008 12:28:00 PM
According to a former staffer, the Los Angeles Times is folding its standalone Sunday book review section, laying off two dedicated book editors. The last standalone section will be the July 27 one. Steve Wasserman, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, sent out an e-mail Monday morning, protesting the changes at the embattled Tribune-owned daily.
Nancy Sullivan, executive director of corporate communications at the paper, would not comment on staff cuts at the paper or that the book review coverage will be placed in the Calendar section of the paper where it will share space with features. She did say that more definitive news would be issued next week and added that the paper "remains committed to book review coverage. What form that takes is what’s under evaluation."
In his e-mail, co-signed by three other former Review editors, Wasserman said the elimination of the book review section will have an adverse effect on the paper, calling it a "philistine blunder that...will further wound the long-term fiscal health of the newspaper."
Despite the folding of the section, the longrunning Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is expected to continue, but Wasserman observed that without the Book Review itself, "the book festival will be a hollow joke." He urged readers and writers "to join with us as we protest this sad and backward step."
