So Much for the Immediacy of Online Journalism, Again

I've noted the slow pace of the Salon book desk here and there and then some more, because it's so easy. In the latest example of tardy cultural reporting from the online newsmagazine that promises "ahead-of-the-curve daily book reviews," last Thursday's edition featured a review of Larry McMurtry's book on Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley nearly three weeks after the author's chat with Deborah Solomon for the NYT magazine. Not only that, the Baltimore Sun had a five-day jumpstart, and the Houston Chronicle also beat Salon, this time by twelve days. And that's just the first page of the Google News search on McMurtry; moving on, I found reviews from the Dallas Morning News and the Los Angeles Times--hell, the New York Daily News got its review in a full week before Solomon's interview, meaning Salon got scooped--to the extent that you can describe book reviewers as being scooped--by almost a month. So much for "ahead of the curve," eh?