From 1948 to 1975, David Astor transformed Britain’s oldest paper into a vibrant, intelligent weekly renowned for its progressive campaigns and the quality of its writing. The author of a new biography recalls some of Astor’s achievements• Click here to read an extract on Astor’s lifelong interest in psychoanalysisDavid Astor was in his mid-30s and recently demobbed when, in 1945, he began to work full time on his family newspaper. Although he had long been the heir-apparent, his father, Waldorf Astor, felt that he needed more experience before becoming the editor of the Observer: he was made the foreign editor, while Ivor Brown, an old-fashioned man of letters, given to writing books about cricket and the theatre, held the fort as acting editor.Cyril Dunn, later to report for the paper from India and South Africa, joined the Observer in 1947 and quickly realised that “David Astor was in total control of what was going on and Ivor Brown was making no attempt to disguise his figurehead status” and that “what I witnessed were the birth pangs of an Observer sensationally different from anything in its own past and a paper unique and wonderful in western journalism as a whole”. Astor was singlemindedly converting a conservative, rather frowsty newspaper into a non-party paper of the centre-left, famed for the quality of its writers: it would combine support for the postwar welfare state with a belief in free enterprise and the mixed economy, anti-communism and Atlanticism... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-02-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 3.2% last week at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. The performance wasn’t a bad one—it was just unable to match the same period last year, when 'It Starts with Us' by Colleen Hoover sold more than 810,000 copies in its first week on sale. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Dann McDorman, the executive producer of “The Beat With Ari Melber,” gave up writing fiction in his 20s. Now, he’s publishing his first novel at age 47. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-10-24 09:02:04 UTC ]
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A host of new titles and a solid performance by adult segments led to a 4.7% increase in unit sales of print books last week over the week ended October 8, 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Olivier award-winning actor, whose major film roles included Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series, has died• ‘An actor who let his heart and soul crack open’: David Jays on Michael Gambon• A life in pictures – gallerySir Michael Gambon, whose extraordinary acting career took him from... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-28 11:39:05 UTC ]
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After a long run with weekly sales ahead of 2022, unit sales of adult fiction titles were down 0.2% in the year-to-date after sales fell last week. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Book manufacturers gathered recently in New York to take stock of the sector in the wake of the pandemic, and to look to the future. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Unit sales for print books had their best weekly performance since mid-June, in part thanks to Stephen King, but still fell 4% from a year ago. Once again, sales were down in all categories. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The August assessment of Circana BookScan's Kristen McLean shows romance leading a drop in United States print book sales. The post Circana BookScan: US Print Book Market ‘Slowing a Bit’ appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-09-11 22:40:03 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 7.9% last week from the comparable week in 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Sales were down in all categories. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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With the adult fiction and nonfiction categories posting declines of 9% and 6%, respectively, unit sales of print books fell 6.1% last week from the comparable week in 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The release of the second season of 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' on Amazon Prime gave a small boost to the Jenny Han novels that the series is based on last week, but it wasn't enough to stop a 7.1% drop in sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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American screenwriter and producer behind the creation of the hugely successful soaps Dallas and Knots LandingDavid Jacobs, who has died aged 84, was an aspiring novelist when he created the show Dallas, a worldwide phenomenon and US television’s first peak-time soap success since Peyton Place.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-23 13:56:48 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books struggled again last week, falling 7.6% compared to the week ended August 13, 2022. The decline in adult fiction continued, with sales off 9.6%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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In another week in which sales in all categories fell, unit sales or print books declined 8.3% at outlets that report to BookScan. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite overall flat sales this July, Circana reports that the US book market also saw some frontlist gains and new voices on the bestseller list. The post Circana on July’s US Print Book Market: A Slight Frontlist Gain appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-08-08 19:27:46 UTC ]
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The string of weeks in which unit sales of print books were down in all major categories reached three last week, leading to a 5.4% sales decline from the comparable week in 2022. Sales of adult fiction fell 7.2%. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Thompson raised nearly £200,000 for Macmillan Cancer Research, and donations continue to come in. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2023-08-02 15:16:19 UTC ]
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From the Gutenberg press to the word processor, a detailed trawl through the history of print offers lessons for the digital ageThe Gutenberg Parenthesis is a term coined by Danish scholar Lars Ole Sauerberg, who proposed that the history of literary culture as we had hitherto known it – the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-08-02 11:00:02 UTC ]
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Unit sales of print books fell 6.1% last week. All six major categories had declines. In the year's strongest segment, adult fiction, sales couldn't keep pace with last year, when 'Where the Crawdads Sing' sold more than 123,000 copies. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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“A good home for good projects” is how sales and marketing director Samuel Chung sums up Chang Jiang Printing Media, which he established a decade ago. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-07-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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