Mixed Bag:
According to Census Bureau estimates, bookstore sales rose 3.5% in March compared to the same period in 2017. However, sales still fell by nearly 3% in the first quarter of 2018 due to "steep declines" in January.
'Lean and impervious':
Paywalls have enabled a handful of independent, rigorous news organizations to maintain a presence in Putin's Russia. But their reach has been attenuated by "state-owned propaganda media" and other sites owned by loyal oligarchs.
The Right Stuff:
Tom Wolfe died at a Manhattan hospital on May 14. A leading exponent of New Journalism in the 1960s and '70s, Wolfe was best known for the episodic social fiction of his later career, including "The Bonfire of the Vanities" and "A Man in Full."
Plunging Revenues:
Following "unexpectedly sharp declines in print circulation and advertising revenues," The Salt Lake Tribune laid off more than a third of its 90-member newsroom staff on May 14. "It’s been terribly challenging and a very lonely journey,” owner Paul Huntsman said. "We simply can’t afford to put The Tribune in a greater deficit."
Broadway Bound:
"A blistering pair of federal lawsuits" surrounding Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" were settled on May 9, enabling the production to open at the Shubert Theater in December.
‘All I did was take a picture':
Ron Olshwanger died on April 29. The furniture dealer, fire district official and "very amateur photographer" received the 1989 Spot News Photography Prize for an iconic photo of firefighter Adam Long attempting to resuscitate a 2-year-old girl.
Familiar Territory:
Gilbert King has received the Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte Commitment to Justice Award from The Innocence Project of Florida. "We're still having voting rights issues we have to grapple with; segregation hasn’t disappeared. It has gotten more difficult and more ingrained in our culture," he said.
Art of the Cut:
For Matthew Philpotts of the University of Liverpool, the "productive conflict" of magazine editing has served as the bedrock of journalistic and critical practice.
'Courageous and incendiary':
Feral House founder Adam Parfrey died on May 10. Characterized as "probably the most influential ‘underground’ publisher in post-millennial America," the company has published or reprinted works by such disparate figures as Josh Alan Friedman, John Zerzan and Françoise Hardy.
'How much longer?':
Montenegrin investigative journalist Olivera Lakić was wounded outside her Podgorica home on May 8. The attack was swiftly condemned by European Union Ambassador Aivo Orav, who characterized it as "very worrying" in light of a series of unsolved attacks against journalists in the Balkan republic.
