Roxane Gay has an advice column at the New York Times. In her first installment, Gay encourages two writers who are worried that they’re too old to make a career out of it. “There is no age limit to finding artistic success,” she writes. “Sometimes it happens at 22 and sometimes it happens at 72 and sometimes it doesn’t happen at all.”
Fred Bass, owner of New York’s Strand Book Store until his retirement last November, has died at the age of eighty-nine. Bass began working at the store, which his father owned, at age thirteen and took over the operation in 1956. In a 2015 interview with NY1, Bass reflected on his life’s work: “My dream was to get a big bookstore, which I’ve achieved. I’m very happy about that.”
Laura Jakes has been hired as a deputy editor at the Washington bureau of the New York Times. Most recently the bureau’s night editor, Jakes has previously worked as the managing editor of Foreign Policy and the Baghdad bureau chief for the Associated Press.
Time Inc. has soldEssence magazine to outside investors led by Richelieu Dennis, the founder of Shea Moisture.
Page Six reports that new Today anchor Hoda Kotb’s salary is $7 million per year, $18 million dollars less than former anchor Matt Lauer’s $25 million-a-year salary. One anonymous source noted that while the numbers “underline the huge wage disparity at NBC News,” Lauer’s pay “reflected the long time he was on the show—25 years. If things go well, Hoda could ask for more next time if she re-ups her contract.”