On Tuesday, Donald Rumsfeld—who, as defense secretary under George W. Bush, was a driving force behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—died. Major outlets wheeled out pre-written obituaries. The AP’s, by Robert Burns, bordered on hagiography. Its headline initially declared Rumsfeld “a cunning leader undermined by Iraq war”; that language was later changed to “cunning leader who oversaw a ruinous Iraq war,” but the opening paragraph still says that “try as he might,” Rumsfeld “could not outmaneuver the ruinous politics of the Iraq war,” as if he had been forced to play chess against a supercomputer. The Iraqi death toll from the war is not noted; the American death toll is—but not before Rumsfeld’s charitable work on behalf of veterans, his “accomplished” college wrestling career, and colleagues’ recollections of his smarts and patriotism. The first words of the article’s URL are “Chicago Bears,” a reference to the football team Rumsfeld supported as a kid. Because the AP is a wire service, the obituary was republished widely. Other prominent efforts were better, but did not adequately foreground the human cost of Rumsfeld’s military aggression: The New York Times addressed Iraq only after mentioning the records he broke as defense secretary (he was the youngest person in that post, under Gerald Ford, then the oldest, under Bush) and his reputation as a “combative infighter” who challenged “military orthodoxies.” The Washington Post described him as “controversial,” but... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-07-02 12:32:38 UTC ]
Scientific American has major plans to reconstruct and grow Scientific American Medicine, a comprehensive professional medical database it first published in 1981. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
At the New York Times' Drafts blog, comedian Steve Macone offered a helpful, humorous glossary of terms for the modern book business. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Format has been a long-simmering topic of debate in book publishing, and the question of when, and if, a title is published in hardcover, paperback, and/or digital has become even more pressing as bricks-and-mortar bookstores dwindle and ebook sales grow. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
While digital distribution has roiled the newspaper, book publishing and music industries, a different story may be playing out in the world of comic books. Continue reading at Knowledge@Wharton
[ Knowledge@Wharton | 2013-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Gains in its educational technology group were not enough to offset declines in the children’s book publishing and distribution unit resulting in a 5.8% decline in total sales at Scholastic for the first quarter ended August 31. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-09-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
News Corp.’s long-awaited split is official. Rupert Murdoch’s media behemoth Friday completed the separation of its entertainment from its news and information businesses into two publicly traded companies. The new News Corp (spelled with no period, differentiating it from the previous... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The future of book publishing is increasingly digital -- and increasingly tilted towards genre fiction. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2013-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
When New Harbinger Publications cofounders Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning were establishing their small press in 1973, it was Fanning’s monthly reading of Popular Mechanics magazine that served as a step-by-step guide to book publishing for the partners. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-05-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Harlequin parent company Torstar has announced restructuring in its book publishing and general... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In the modern world of book publishing, should we all be preparing for a second career as an entrepreneur? Plenty of our colleagues are choosing that career path. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
High-speed inkjet printing has been described as the biggest development in book publishing in the past 50 years. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-10-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Johnny Depp launches his own book imprint with publishing company HarperCollins. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Eli Horowitz does not think of himself as someone who “fetishizes the book.” But he’s also seen what books become, in digital form, and has not always been impressed. A former managing editor and publisher at McSweeney’s, Horowitz describes much of what he has seen in the digital revolution in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Fiscal 2012 was a good year made great by The Hunger Games,” Scholastic chairman Dick Robinson told analysts in a conference call last Thursday to discuss results in the year ended May 31, in which sales rose 14%, to $2.15 billion, and net income jumped from $39.4 million to $102.4 million. The... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Since Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Scientific American, both Macmillan brands, announced in fall 2010 that they were joining forces, Amanda Moon, senior editor of what is being called the Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux imprint, and Scientific American editor-in-chief Mariette... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Twenty years after it was founded by former Pantheon publisher Andre Schiffrin as a nonprofit publisher with a mission statement to publish “in the public interest,” the New Press is on something of a roll. The house has a new bestseller—Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow—spacious offices in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The word synergy, in the world of book publishing, feels like a term that died in the ’90s. Back then, almost every publisher housed within a media conglomerate was touting the ways it would use its TV-making or movie-making sister companies to sell books. Fox would boost HarperCollins.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Mon, 14/03/2011 - 08:52 United Agents co-founder and children's agent Rosemary Canter died on Friday [11th March]. Canter began her publishing career as assistant fiction editor at Penguin Books in 1972, eventually working in children's book... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this