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| Pamela Paul | |
Pamela Paul, current editor of the New York Times Sunday Book Review, will now oversee the newspaper's daily and Sunday book coverage. In a note sent to staff yesterday, NYT executive editor Dean Baquet wrote: "It will be Pamela's job to think about how our coverage should change and, of course, how it should not change. (We will, for instance, maintain our Sunday Book Review. It is hard to imagine the paper without it.) Above all, we believe we have a significant opportunity to expand the audience for our books coverage."
Noting that while the move "may seem like simple tinkering in the flow chart," Baquet described Paul's promotion as "large in the life of the Times and in American publishing. Currently, the line between Sunday and daily reviews--a line established when the paper was divided according to print constructs--means that the great critics Michiko Kakutani, Dwight Garner and Jennifer Senior do not write for the cover of the Review. It means that we don't often coordinate in deciding which books are so important they deserve both a daily and a Sunday review."
The change is designed to "create a structure that will allow our critics more breathing room to do other kinds of writing--including essays that marry the world of books and the larger world. Pamela will also oversee coverage of books news, including the work of Alexandra Alter, who covers the publishing industry," Baquet wrote, adding that "under Pamela's leadership, books and book reviews will be a consistent and significant part of the Times's daily culture report."
Paul joined the NYTBR as children's book editor in 2011. During her tenure as editor, she introduced a number of new features and voices, including Bookends, additional essays and more writing about art and poetry. She has also written four books, the most recent of which is My Life With Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books; Plot Ensues, which will be published next year.