new trouble in Paradise, says Stothard

One of the first reports has come in from the roundtable on book-reviewing at Princeton, and it's from Peter Stothard, of the TLS.

Participants included Stothard, Michael Dirda, Sam Tanenhaus, Jessa Crispin, and Steve Wasserman, who wrote this extensive summary in the Columbia Journalism Review in 2007 (which has now become a subscription-only publication. Good luck to 'em.)

It's a potent piece of blogging, book-ended by Stothard evocatively reading Fitzgerald's first novel in the hotel where some of its parties were set. Two useful paragraphs suggest a direction for the future, not a surprising one to hear from Stothard's quarters:

Sam Tanenhaus's vigorous defence of the serious and popular in his coverage - with all the hackles it raises from those who distrust popularity at all - took me back vividly to my days of editing The Times in London. The 'serious and popular' is seriously hard. The TLS, by a contrast that could only be explained here at the acute risk of smugness, can succeed - and does - by offering a mix of exclusively the serious and sometimes difficult to loyal subscibers who prize us precisely and only for doing just that.

 Loyal readers paying serious money for literary criticism in a paper which has never been as dependent on advertising as the general press is a winning formula in these days. The World Wide Web, which causes such trouble to newspaper economies, is for us a powerful tool to attract new subscribers in places around the world which we could never reach by mail.

Enjoy.

Comments

[fifi]

All these new forms of communication and critique are perfect for someone like me. I like the way things flow from different sources.

By the way a friend participated in this project, which I thought quite interesting...though apparently there as not been too muc publicity in te usual sources. I like the crossover of art and literature and there seemed a good mix of poets, artists, writeres and musicians in it:

http://www.laurencesternetrust.org.uk/ gives the background and the blog site is here:

http://blackpage73.blogspot.com/

I meant to send you this when I first heard of it. Better late than nevah

[genevieve]

Thanks for that, fifi - and all in a good cause, too - an auction to pay for roof repairs at Shandy Hall. Your friend is in fine company there.