TV readers
: In the print (but not online) version of this story on the Clinton book debut, Knopf’s director of publicity, Paul Bogaards, pooh-poohs the impact of Michiko Kakutani’s slam of the book on the front page — front page?!? — of Sunday’s — Sunday’s! — New York Times.
“The American public gets its information about books from television,” he sniffed back.
Times have changed. When I first proposed the idea for Entertainment Weekly six years before its launch, it was soundly rejected by Henry Grunwald, then editor-in-chief of Time Inc. The reason: Grunwald said that people who watch TV do not read; one magazine cannot possibly serve both.
Now big books are pure mall, Wallmart through and through.
