Finally, a bit of good news for those of us who’ve been quietly mourning the decline of books coverage in newspapers. Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan is reporting that the New York Observer, NYC’s delightfully Pepto Bismol-hued newspaper, will soon start observing…books. The go-to pub for cultural and media coverage is about to roll out the “Observer Review of Books,” or “ORB”—which will accompany a doubling of the print paper’s cover price (from $1 to $2).
The move makes sense: the paper’s audience tends to skew literary, and a successful book review section could increase the financial viability of the Observer’s print product overall. (A newspaper coming up with a creative way to save itself? Right on.) Plus, on the zeitgeist side of things, we’re all for any move that leads to more books coverage.
What will the read be on “ORB”? Stay tuned.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.