Inside the Australian and New Zealand book industry

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‘New York Times’ to reduce bestseller lists

The New York Times (NYT) is dropping its print and online bestseller lists for graphic novels and manga, mass-market paperbacks, teen e-books and middle-grade e-books effective from 5 February, reports Publishers Weekly.

The NYT said the cuts were part of a larger plan to revamp its books coverage, with the publication emphasising its intention ‘to cover all of these genres of books in our news coverage (in print and online)’.

Several publishers have expressed their disappointment over the cuts. Kensington Publishing CEO Steven Zacharius said that dropping the mass-market paperback list ‘effects sales, and not having this list will hurt authors tremendously’, while Kevin Hamric, senior director of sales and marketing at Viz Media, said he was ‘dismayed with this decision especially in light of the fact that the graphic novel/manga/comics category has been one of only a very few book categories that have shown growth in the past 2-3 years’. ‘Our fans, readers, authors, and licensors look forward to seeing the bestseller list each week,’ he said.

 

Category: International news