Beloved in literary publishing circles and with a circulation of 60,000, Bookforum was founded in 1994 and was seen to be a vital and vibrant book review publication. But when its sister publication, Artforum, was sold to Penske Media, Bookforum became financially untenable without Artforum’s income. For more on the publication and its closure, see the New Yorker.
There was much outpouring of grief on Twitter in particular; the closure is seen as the latest blow in a media landscape with few book-review outlets and increasingly fewer literary magazines. Longtime book critic Ann Kjellberg wrote, “In Bookforum a book could count on informed, focused, demanding attention, whereas Lit Hub by design sweeps in many kinds of reading and readers. There was a sense of play, of sometimes gritty glamour, but also a jolt of intellectual rigor. One felt that Bookforum’s audience was to an extent also its subject.”
Amidst the Sturm und Drang, Belt Publishing’s Anne Trubek suggested that Substack may offer a viable platform for a book review newsletter: “What would I do if I wanted to increase smart coverage of American books in 2023? I would start by analyzing the truly surprising new business model story of this decade: the willingness of individuals to pay individual writers who write newsletters on Substack. The surprise is not the success of Substack per se, but that so many people are willing to pay to read newsletters.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
