Publishing Is Dead, Long Live Books
André Schiffrin spent 30 years atop Pantheon Books and now runs the New Press. In Words and Money (Verso), he complains about the supposed dominance of the corporate mentality in publishing. But he seems unable to specify exactly how this mentality has harmed the lives of readers.
Schiffrin makes sourceless assertions about slashed library budgets (in fact, from 2002 to 2008 American public library expenditures rose 9 percent in inflation-adjusted terms), and he hails Europe for subsidizing small bookstores and publishers. While insisting that public funding of media needn't equal control, he notes that in France and Italy, "presidents are obsessed with controlling the media."
In the meantime, Schiffrin barely recognizes the Internet and the unparalleled access it offers to book buying, distribution, and reading. You get the impression that he doesn't really care about access to books. He's just mad people aren't forced to support the kind of books and businesses he likes. —Brian Doherty
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
hu
is good