Tanenhaus Is in the House

The news is flitting around the literary blogosphere, as revealed by Romenesko: Sam Tanenhaus is the new editor of the New York Times Book Review (a move Terry Teachout had actually predicted last Saturday, when he and I and Our Girl In Chicago convened for drinks). One of Mark's readers remarks, "I can't imagine how a conservative nonfiction writer who contributes to Vanity Fair is going to upgrade the fiction coverage to the satisfaction of the liberal readers of the NYT book section." Other folks have pointed out Tanenhaus' politics aren't simply (or even necessarily) conservative, but I'd also point out that (a) there's no reason a nonfiction writer can't appreciate fiction and (b) ultimately, I suspect "the liberal readers" aren't the group he'll need to satisfy above all others in terms of fiction coverage. For that matter, I'm not really sure how fiction-loving equals liberalism, but hey, the guy hasn't even edited his first issue yet.

Romenesko also passes along the news that Wen Stephenson will be the new deputy editor for the Ideas desk at the Boston Globe. Wen played a critical role in the intersection of old and new media through his founding work on Atlantic Unbound, the website for The Atlantic Monthly. More recently, he was the web editor for the PBS series Frontline. Though I've never met him, I've always thought Wen a swell fellow, at least since 1997, when he linked to my Charles Baxter interview from theirs. Which is pretty much how I started reading the website, and the magazine. (Never mind why it took me until 1997 to start reading The Atlantic.) So: way to go, Wen!