As news of Sam Tanenhaus's appointment to the NY Times Week in Review section spread over the weekend, kneejerk Tanenhaus haters took the opportunity to celebrate his departure from the NYT Book Review—ignoring clear signals in Bill Keller's executive memo that the Times has high regard for his accomplishments with that section of the paper, intends to keep him on in that position, and is hoping that lightning will strike twice. Because of my own interest in the intersection of book reviewing and the op-ed approach to current affairs—extending at least as far back as the LA Times decision earlier this year to graft those two sections together without a unified editorial vision—I dashed off an interview request, hoping Tanenhaus might open up on whether his "news about the culture" approach to literary criticism might be applicable in some way to his new department, or what possibilities might exist for informal overlap while each section retained its own franchise identity.

Tanenhaus politely demurred, saying it was far too early to speak about such matters. (He doesn't even start on the new section until next month.) "[The Week in Review], like [the Book Review], has a strong staff of pros who know what they're doing and have been doing it successfully for quite some time," he explained when he emailed back. "My first job, as it was when I joined TBR, is to learn how the section works and see how my new colleagues think I might be able to contribute in a productive way."