“Black & White and Dead All Over,” a murder mystery set in a modern newspaper newsroom, features plenty of gallows humor in ‘John Darnton’s new novel. USAToday says, “Drawing on his storied career at The New York Times, Darnton delivers a well-turned whodunit that reads like The Front Page with additional reporting by Evelyn Waugh and Agatha Christie.”
A colorful cast of characters populates the novel, including reporters and a certain New Zealand publisher whose name rings vaguely familiar: Lester Moloch (almost rhymes with Murdoch).

To read all about it, CLICK HERE.

A memo from Tribune Co. (financially distressed owner of Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, among others) chief innovation officer Lee Abrams is being widely quoted, reports Publishers Lunch, the daily e-newsletter produced by Publishersmarketplace.com. This snippet, buried fairly deep in his rambling memo, speaks to his view on book pages in newspapers:

“Heard a conversation about how Book reporting doesn’t generate revenue and may have to go away. WAIT! Maybe Book reviews and coverage are one of those things that don’t generate revenue right now, BUT–are trademarks for newspapers and elicit high passion from readers. At XM, (Abrams has a background in radio) we had Opera channels. Low listenership … HIGH passion … AND–it was one of those things that even if people didn’t listen or even like Opera, it was one of those things you had to have for completeness. Maybe Book sections in newspapers are just dated. Not the idea…but the look and feel. Maybe they’re modeled after a book store in 1967 whereas we’re in the Borders, Amazon, B&N era. Maybe they are too scholarly. Maybe they avoid genres like Christian books, Celebrity books and Popular novels, opting instead for reviews of the Philippine Socialist Movement in the 1800’s. The point here is maybe Book sections need to be as dramatically re-thought as Borders re-thought retail. Not dumbing down–but getting in sync with the 21st Century mainstream book reader.”
Well, to scholarly types, that probably sounds a lot like dumbing down. But newspapers, save the editorial and op-ed pages, are hardly the bastions of ivory-towered academia (and op-eds can be pretty sophomoric, too, which might be insulting the sophomoric).
Tribune Chairman and Chief executive Sam Zell, widely reviled by some (see for yourself), hired Abram to shake the rust off his struggling empire.

To read Tell Zell, CLICK HERE.

To read LAobserved, CLICK HERE.

Another newspaper is cutting back on its book review section readership, advertising and news hole continue to shrink; this time it’s the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
In Critical Mass, the blog of the national book critic circle board of directors, Plain Dealer book editor Karen Long lamented the 25 percent cut in space alloted for books and book reviews.
“For three years, it’s been my joy to help unleash your opinions upon the world, or at least the corner of it in northeast Ohio,” she wrote. “Starting this Sunday, July 6, that joy is reduced by 25 percent. The pages are being cut to one and one-half. Nobody following the news biz can pretend to be surprised, but all of us can be sad, just the same.”
One could argue whether Web entities are the cause or effect of continuing cuts at newspapers (probably both), but the growing influence of information sources that start with “http” also places greater responsibility on those sites.
To read the blog, CLICK HERE.