The New York Times has announced three new hires for the Books section: Molly Young and Alexandra Jacobs are joining as staff critics and Jennifer Wilson is becoming a contributing essayist to the Book Review.
For Columbia Journalism Review, Clio Chang writes about the political evolution of Teen Vogue, which is regrouping after the resignation of editor in chief Alexi McCammond. The magazine hired a new editor this May, and Chang observes that “the mood today . . . teeters between positivity and nihilism; Teen Vogue staffers are fully aware of the strange tension in producing justice-oriented and socialist coverage in the service of a historically racist and classist company, even as they are proud of the work they’ve been able to accomplish within those constraints.”
On Twitter, Ron Nixon, an editor at the Associated Press and the author of Selling Apartheid, writes a thread about burnout among writers and editors and the culture of “paying your dues” that has long dominated the industry. Discussing the need to keep young, talented reporters in the field, Nixon writes, “We as managers can model a different way. Just because we went through hell, doesn't mean they have to. We can do better.”
The New Yorker Festival will take place both in-person and online this year, starting on October 4th.
The Library of Congress has announced the roster for the National Book Festival, which includes more than one hundred authors. The events will begin on September 17th.
The Vice Union is calling on the company to honor the severance terms offered during last year’s layoffs to seventeen recently laid-off employees.
At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Sarah Chihaya, Merve Emre, Annie Julia Wyman discuss the Netflix academia drama The Chair. Wyman, one of the show’s creators, says that the show was not pitched as a campus drama, which seemed to have little chance of commercial success. Instead, they took a different approach to the pitch: “This is a workplace comedy. Everybody has a job. Everybody has a boss who generates absurdity and conflict. It’s good comedy and good drama.”
