The Fate of the Newspaper Science Fiction & Fantasy Review

Will the Internet kill newspaper science fiction & fantasy book reviews? The Random House website Suvudu interviewed five reviewers from newspapers around the country. The roundtable included journalists from The Seattle Times, The Kansas City Star, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Mark Graham from the recently shuttered Rocky Mountain News had the gloomiest outlook on genre coverage: “Most editors and publishers are even older than I, and they have always considered SF/Fantasy a second-class citizen. Sadly, they are not being replaced by younger folks who might feel differently. Instead, the newspapers are going out of business, killed by the Internet that these same younger folks embrace.”

Jim Hopper from The San Diego Union-Tribune had some gruff words: “There is so much dross on the net that finding real reviews is a bit tedious…I’m somewhat over 50, bought pulps new when Willy Ley was still writing for Galaxy, and I still, dinosaur that I am, would rather put a book or a newspaper or a magazine in my pocket than show off my gigapixel 10.8 KVA 29-gram iridium-ion smartscreen methane-powered thumbnail projector to read ‘Jabberwocky’ in 1440pt. Type on the nearest wall.”

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