The Los Angeles Times announced yesterday that on April 15 it will no longer publish its Book Review as a stand-alone section; instead it will be combined with the opinion section (currently titled “Current”). The new Book Review section will continue to run on Sunday, when circulation is highest, and will feature more visual elements such as portraiture and photography. The newspaper also plans to publish book reviews in its daily edition and to expand the Book Review’s Web site to include listings for book-related events and lectures, as well as the ability to search bookstores for titles.
The Los Angeles Times Book Review ran as a stand-alone section for thirty years and was one of the last remaining freestanding sections of its kind in the country. The others are those published by the Chicago Tribune (which shrunk its review section to a Saturday tabloid in January of last year), the New York Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Washington Post.
