A clarification from Norman Pearlstine

On Monday, Time, Inc. Editor-in-Chief Norman Pearlstine officially became the first PlameGate player to announce a book deal with “Off The Record: The Use and Misuse of Anonymous Sources.” Publisher’s Lunch (and we, in turn) reported the deal, saying that Pearlstine would be generously donating the royalties from the project to “not-for-profit organizations that support journalists and journalism.” We lauded the generous move, but wondered at the terminology since royalties are one thing but the advance is quite another. How was Pearlstine planning to dispose of the advance? We fired off a little email to Time, Inc. and promptly got distracted by the magical world within our computer, because that’s the kind of attention span we have, right Kate White?

Less than fifteen minutes later our cellphone rang. It was the man himself: Norman Pearlstine. His voice, it may be said, is very mellifluous. Pearlstine said that while some portion of the advance will be used to cover expenses, he said unequivocally that “any money not used for expenses will be donated.” That figure, of course, is TBA, but whatever is left over will indeed go to a worthy journalistic cause.

Which is great news, and a generous donation on the part of Pearlstine who might not need the money but who is undertaking a big time commitment. Of course we tried to get the advance out of him, but the figure has not yet been made public and Pearlstine declined to reveal it (though it is reportedly in the low six-figure range).

As for the lucky recipient of the proceeds? Pearlstine said he’s had some discussions on the topic but “we decided we’d better get the book written first.” Naturally I asked if he’d started but he demurred, saying that he preferred to stick to the topic at hand. Which we assume was code for “Yikes! Now I’ve got to WRITE the damn thing!”

In any event, in case you were wondering, wonder no more. In other news, now you know how to get a personal call from Norm Pearlstine. Woo hoo!

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