The death of the Globe Books section
Dec 08, 2008 in Books
Bookninja reported last week that the standalone books section in the Globe is no more.
From the Globe’s press release:
Expanding audience reach, the Books section will physically join The Globe’s award-winning Focus section on Saturdays, starting January 10. “We’re growing audience reach with both online and in-paper formats,” said Greenspon. “The Focus section is one of the most high-profile, best-read sections of the paper so the Books content should reach even more readers.”
If you’re a booklover in Canada, it’s a sad thing, of course. The Globe’s book section is the only stand-alone book section in the country and its unique format (and inclusion in the ‘paper of record’) did give reviews in the section a certain cachet.
Over at Bookninja, there’s a bit of hand-wringing about the ‘death’ of the section, and the decline of literary and critical culture in Canada. The Globe has said that they’re beefing up their online books coverage, which is a step in the right direction. Their current site is a bit anemic and the good books sections (the NYT and the Guardian stand out) have healthy online components. The Times’ weekly books podcast is extremely well done and adds a lot to an already healthy section.
Taken in Broad Daylight (!!!Error!!!) download
Most literary people think that books are a rarefied cultural product deserving of special coverage. They’re not. Every medium (film, music, television, art) is figuring out how to best use the internet. In music, it’s pretty clear that blogs and certain sites (Pitchfork, MySpace, et al) set the tone for music coverage online and off-line. The best TV criticism (or at least the stuff that’s being the most read) are on fan-sites and places like TV without pity.
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money trailer
So, am I sad about the changes at Globe Books? Sure. But the conversation about books is still happening, it’s just gotten harder to find online. It’s on amazon reader reviews, blogs, facebook, maybe even twitter. And while a 140 character window might not be the best place for literary analysis, that doesn’t mean that those in the literary community shouldn’t figure out a way to shift these conversations online.
It might seem kind of obvious, but at the end of the day you go where your readers are.