Story at Teleread: The New York Times and some other major publications are earning millions in ad money by letting the public discover and read old content in this era of search engines. To the vast credit of Publishers Weekly, it generally sees the value of preserving Web-published items. Such is my impression.
Yesterday, however, without explanation, PW told me that it was removing not just the E-Book Report archives, but also those of two other “inactive blogs” from public view.
Holt Uncensored
You can read archives from Holt Uncensored here. The website (about books and the book industry) is written by Pat Holt, former Book Review Editor and Critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, one of the first papers to give up its freestanding book review. Pat really knows her stuff.
One of the first papers to give up its freestanding book review?
I’m not sure what you mean by this, but I’ve been reading the San Francisco Chronicle for several decades, and it still has a freestanding Sunday book review section–and many (most?) of the reviews are written for the Chronicle (many by local authors, of which Northern California has a few thousand). For that matter, the Chronicle also has a daily book review, although that’s not separate.
Of course, the book review section isn’t as big as it used to be, for the usual reasons: Publishers spend nearly all their advertising dollars in the New York review media.
those damn lisnews fact checkers!
Thanks for the correction Walt.
From her website: “She (Holt) was book editor and critic at The San Francisco Chronicle for 16 years (1982-1998) and was named a board member of The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in 1984. Increasingly concerned about the plight of independent bookstores in their struggle to survive wave after wave of chain bookstores, price clubs, discounters and Internet suppliers, Pat Holt resigned from The Chronicle in 1998 to create “Holt Uncensored,” an email book column launched by the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.”
Karen Holt
Great to see the Pat Holt pointer, Birdie. Here, of course, we’re talking about Karen Holt. Thanks to you and Bibliofuture for an interest in this matter! I’m rooting for PW to do the right thing and restore the archives for Karen, David N. and me; and it’ll be wonderful if librarians take an interest, since the Reed publications are so important. Let’s also hope that PW, LJ and other Reed pubs fare well on the auction block! – David
thanks
David, for the correction and the acknowledgment. The auction block has gotten even busier these days in the world of books, that’s for sure.