Friday, May 4, 2007
News AJC book protesters talk to top brass
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Fri, May 4, 2007 at 11:14 PM
Two organizers of Thursday's book-related protest outside the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offices were surprised when top editor Julia Wallace invited them upstairs for a chat.
The demonstration, which drew as many as 60 local authors, literary critics and book-lovers, was staged to express displeasure with the newspaper's elimination of the job of book editor, a position currently held by Teresa Weaver.
Shannon Byrne, a local publicist for Little, Brown, and John Freeman, president of the National Book Critics Circle, were given an hourlong private audience with Wallace and the newly elevated "managing editor for print," Bert Roughton.
Byrne says Wallace began the meeting by telling her guests that the two-page Sunday book section is the least-read section in the paper and explained that the paper was going to be devoting more of its resources to local coverage. As she has in recent interviews and memos, Wallace, however, also said the AJC's commitment to book coverage would not suffer.
Byrne, for one, sees a contradiction there.
"I'm glad they appeared willing to listen to us and I'd like to believe their reassurances," she says. "But I don't see how a book section gets better when you get rid of your book editor and you have fewer people doing more work."
Certainly, there was no shortage of coverage of the book protest. The event was filmed by CNN, C-SPAN and Fox News, and was also covered by Publishers Weekly.
Comments (2)
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There really is a Julia Wallace? I don't believe it. When has she ever appeared in (Atlanta) public before? I thought she just sat on some Cox kid's PJ and wrote-up magical thinking memos in mid-air.
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Did Julia have them sprayed with Lysol as they entered? She detests dirty plebians and their trivial complaints. Well, Bert was there so we know where her eyes were pointed (ah...swoon). Boy, does she LOVE the attention she's getting for eviscerating the paper. Serial killers would be proud.
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