Book Editor Departs

Last night at the local guild meeting, the book editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Arthur Salm, announced he is becoming a reporter for the paper's Metro section. He didn't know what will happen to the books "pages", recently reduced from a pull-out section to two pages inside Arts and Entertainment.

Salm discussed what book reviews are and aren't, gave an overview of his incredibly tedious and boring-sounding job, predicted that Internet news content providers will start charging and bookstores will use POD. He seemed intent on impressing us with the abrupt rise to his current editorial position based on his apparently innate writing skills. He stressed:

• his B.A. in an unrelated field
• lack of any writing courses
• background as a bus driver
  
• experience as an unpaid movie critic on radio

His single editing credential consisted of proofreading copyright lines on reprints for a local academic press. Otherwise, he shuffled papers for that publisher, then skated into the job at the paper.

I don't know what to make of this, except to admit that I never took any journalism classes, either, although I had every creative writing class Northwestern offered. Otherwise, I have a prediction: the books editor position at the paper may not be filled, in keeping with the declining size and quality of the medium. I suspect that's been the plan for a long time.

Goodbye, Arthur. We wish you well.