Wasserman to Edit Truthdig Book Review

At a time when newspapers are cutting back on their coverage of books, we’re deepening our commitment to the exploration of questions that do not have simple answers. Truthdig is pleased to announce that Steve Wasserman, former Los Angeles Times Book Review editor, will join us as editor of a weekly book review feature, to be launched in October. Please stay tuned.

LOS ANGELES — Truthdig (www.truthdig.com), winner of the 2007 Webby Award for Best Political Blog, is pleased to announce the appointment of Steve Wasserman as book editor. A former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Wasserman will inaugurate Truthdig’s weekly book review, starting in October 2007.

At a time when newspapers are cutting back on their coverage of books, Truthdig is acting to counter this betrayal of journalism’s fundamental obligation to deliver the news that stays news. What is most scarce in our culture is the exploration of questions that do not have obvious or simple answers.

Books, despite predictions of their demise, are alive and flourishing. Ten years ago, some 50,000 books were published annually in America. Today, more than three times that number are published, yet review coverage in the mainstream media shrinks. Truthdig seeks to reverse that trend.

Book coverage on Truthdig will complement its political emphasis by deepening public debate on a range of compelling issues. Such coverage will embrace the enduring need for serious and lively analysis so necessary in an increasingly dizzy culture. The fundamental idea at stake is the self-image of society: how America reasons with itself, describes itself, imagines itself. Nothing in the acceleration made possible by the digital revolution banishes the need for the rigor such self-reckoning requires. In its reviews, Truthdig will focus on what matters.

Weekly reviews will be by contributors who bring to bear upon their considerations authority and superb writing gifts. They will include novelists, essayists, poets, historians and others. The reviews will be designed to deepen public debate and to engage readers in an ongoing conversation.

About Steve Wasserman, Editor, Truthdig Book Review Steve Wasserman worked for a total of 14 years at the Los Angeles Times in two principal capacities — as deputy editor for five years of the Op-Ed page and the paper’s Sunday Opinion section and, most recently, for nine years (1996-2005) as editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He was editorial director of Times Books when it was a division of Random House Inc. and publisher and editorial director of Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. He is currently managing director of the New York office of Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson P.C., a literary agency, a position he will continue to exercise.