The NYT Trashes Its Own
The NYT giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other.
One of the most powerful influencers on book sales, the New York Times Magazine, devoted Sunday’s cover to an excerpt from a book about the TV morning show wars, Top of the Morning (Hachette/Grand Central) by one of the newspaper’s own media reporters, Brian Stelter.
But on Monday, the daily NYT reviewer dismissed the book as merely “fairly engaging,” and groaned over the writing style (“sometimes Mr. Stelter seems to throw out verbiage mainly for his own amusement.” A 109-word sentence is called a “veritable life imprisonment”) and detailed spotty reporting.
Stetler responds in an interview with The Wrap, saying he expects NYT reviews to be tough but that he’s “more interested in readers’ reviews,” noting he has been “overwhelmed by positive messages from people on Twitter.”
The media is fascinated with the story of the morning shows’ struggle for ratings (New York magazine also devoted a long feature to it), but readers may be less so. Despite all the attention, the book barely cracked the Amazon Top 100 on release yesterday and holds in libraries are light.