John Williams, the former editor of the Washington Post’s Book World, wrote about the newspaper’s decision to shutter the section in an essay for the Atlantic.
Earlier this month, the Post told its staff that it was shutting down Book World as part of a mass layoff of more than 300 employees. At least nine journalists worked at the section, including critics Ron Charles and Becca Rothfeld, who have both received the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.
In the Atlantic, Williams wrote, “I feel very passionate about the importance of arts coverage and criticism, but my thoughts about building and maintaining an audience apply just as well to international news, local journalism, and reporting on climate change, other areas that are vital to the mix of any serious newspaper even if the number of clicks on them can be modest.”
He wrote that it’s possible that some readers now find arts criticism irrelevant in the age of Amazon and Goodreads reviews.
“I don’t think readers are wrong, or that certain trends aren’t real; I think that important guardians of the media often misunderstand them….I do believe that the subscription model is not just the answer to a revenue problem, but an asset to the work itself—an opportunity to know more about your readers, their commitments, and their curiosities, and to reward them rather than condescend to them or, worse, punish them.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
