Staff Cuts at Library Journal; Washington Post Cuts Book Section; Could the New Yorker Be in Trouble?
-- Library Journal, 1/29/2009 1:58:00 PM
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We’re not going to sugarcoat it. It’s bad out there, and this week the economic downturn hit home. Faced with a tough advertising market, and in the wake of an aborted attempt to sell the company, Reed Business Information (RBI) this week cut some seven percent of its work force. These cuts included layoffs at Library Journal. Among those leaving are long-time, valued staffers Ann Burns, Book Review Associate Editor; Ann Kim, special projects editor; Lynn Blumenstein, senior editor, Library Hotline; and Aida Bardales, Críticas senior editor. In addition, the cuts also claimed Publishers Weekly editor-in-chief Sara Nelson and longtime editor Daisy Maryles.
As part of reorganization, Ron Shank, group publisher of Library Journal (LJ), School Library Journal (SLJ), and Publishers Weekly, has created a new management structure at the Publishing Division, and named Brian Kenney, SLJ editor-in-chief, as editorial director for the group. Kenney, a librarian and former LJ executive editor, is charged with building a new team structure across all three magazines. He will retain his title and role at SLJ, while Francine Fialkoff, will continue in her post of editor-in-chief of LJ, working with Kenney as a key team strategist. Each publication will retain its editorial identity. “Kenney’s mission,” Shank said, “will be to work with the group to maximize the opportunities of digital publishing and elevate quality content for the greatest exposure.”
RBI will suspend publication of Críticas, the twice monthly online newsletter for reviews in English of Spanish-language titles. Plans are underway to continue coverage of Spanish books in the existing publications. Library Hotline will continue as a co-publication of LJ and SLJ. Please send news/people/product news for Hotline to Mike Rogers (mrogers@reedbusiness.com)...
In another blow to the publishing industry this week, the Washington Post announced that is folding the print version of Book World, its Sunday book review section. The paper says it will shift reviews to space inside two other sections of the paper as of February 15. The elimination of Book World is at once a blow to book coverage, and a sign of the continuing problems facing newspapers…
And, finally, this sobering item: in a speculative report, MediaBistro’s Fishbowl NY suggested that ongoing advertising troubles could force Conde Nast to close its flagship magazine, the New Yorker. “David Remnick’s book consistently produces some of the best journalism around,” the item notes, “but the economics might end up forcing [Conde Nast chairman] Si Newhouse to kill his baby.” Fishbowl notes that ad pages accounted were down to just 12 percent for the latest issue, a perilously low figure.
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