Half as Much Fun

Just when it seemed the cutbacks in newspaper book sections had struck bone, they've gone deeper yet this month. Starting on December 30th the Chicago Sun-Times' book section -- formerly run by Cheryl L. Reed, now by Teresa Budasi -- is being reduced by half, and moved from the Controvesy section of the newspaper to the Show section. All reviews are being reduced by half, as well, to 250 to 300 words.

These are grim times, as anyone who works in the newspaper industry will tell you -- and all sections are being affected. It feels especially too bad to see this happen at the Sun-Times, though. In the wake of the Chicago Tribune's move to running books on Saturday, the Sun-Times began running a ramped up section, even advertising (above the fold) as "the only books section on Sunday" in Chicago. The paper was treating books as a selling point.

It feels like there is still an opportunity for a visionary newspaper publisher to really go against the tide, and invest heavily in books -- say, connect the newspaper to local events, to sponsor a book festival, host a podcast or a radio show, run a blog, draw in local novelist or two as columnists, email its reviews out to subscribers, host web-only content, run Q&As with authors passing through town, start a book-club, reach out to non-book-industry advertisers -- and tap into the still very large group of people who care about reading. (It's worth noting that Frank Wilson does some of this in Philly, as does the New York Times, the LA Times, and the Guardian).

The good news here is that the Sun-Times' section might possibly be able to get back some of its space back by running web only pieces. Let's hope that does happen, so they can maintain the diversity of voices the paper had become good at bringing forward in recent years.