Billionaires and Book Reviews

Post Bookforum thoughts

The announcement that Bookforum is closing launched a tsunami of tsoris on the increasingly spare and angry platform (or, according to Musk, “traditional publisher¹”) twitter. The reason seems to be a new owner who, having bought Artforum a few weeks ago, decided to close its little sister publication that, presumably, makes less money (or, probably, loses money) than the art magazine. That mirrors the reason for the short life of Astra magazine: the Chinese conglomerate that funded it decided to stop funding it after a few short months. Who knows if that other darling new literary publication, The Drift, now funded by a rich person/art gallery, might suffer the same fate.

“No more billionaire owners of book review publications!” was the mood on twitter after the Bookforum announcement, a mood echoed by those decrying the new owner of twitter itself. I don’t disagree with this sentiment, but I am cognizant of how quickly such stands can become hypocritical. Authors who publish books …