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Just in case it wasn’t perfectly clear that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, this week The Associated Press wire service announced it is ending its weekly book reviews as of Sept. 1, and the Chicago Tribune eliminated the position of film critic.
In a letter to reviewers, the AP’s global entertainment and lifestyle editor thanked the stable of freelancers for their work, saying, “This was a difficult decision but one made after a thorough review of AP’s story offerings and what is being most read on our website and mobile apps, as well as what customers are using.
“Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, co-ordinate, write and edit reviews.”
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Tribune critic Michael Phillips, meanwhile, was offered another to-be-determined position at the paper, but opted for a buyout. In a farewell essay for the paper, the longtime critic, whose reviews the Free Press often runs, encouraged readers to “keep seeking out the critical voices that make your own perceptions a little sharper, your interest in something you’ve seen — and something you may see tomorrow night — a little keener.”
He goes on to reference an Arthur Miller quote that was etched into a wall inside the Tribune’s former lobby: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”
“Right now, any newspaper with an interest in staying urgent and relevant and alert is getting an earful of a fractious nation,” he writes. “Making sense of these nerve-racking times, and everything filmmakers, artists, writers, creators create out of the din, amounts to more than a routine profession. Or a bottom line.”
Bottom lines, of course, dictate business decisions. But news can’t merely be a transactional exchange.
Articles on city hall meetings also have a lower audience than sensational murder trials, but fewer clicks shouldn’t make that coverage obsolete.
And it’s not that people have stopped caring about books, as the flourishing of BookTok accounts indicate.
I’m not anti-TikTok by any stretch and I welcome all the book-loving influencers who make a real impact on sales and have boosted some authors out of obscurity; I have certainly been swayed to read novels by accounts that I follow.
But reviewing books and movies is not really about recommending books or movies. It’s part of the cultural conversation, a considered response meant to inspire discussion.
An Instagram influencer rapidly sorting new titles into Yea or Nay piles can’t replace a thoughtful, well-written essay from someone who not only has spent a lifetime engaging meaningfully with an artform, but also a lifetime wrangling words into a form that helps others engage with it.
In 1957, critic/painter/novelist John Berger wrote: “The most imaginative and revolutionary artists create as an act of faith in the future. The duty of the critic is to guarantee that faith by understanding.”
It’s very sad that we seem to be losing faith.
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