USA Today suspends weekly book bestseller list indefinitely after it lays off staffers .
Their parent company Gannett laid off the editor who was in charge of making the weekly list. Mary Cadden had worked on the list for over a decade before being let go. She was let go along with hundreds of staffers earlier this month.
USA Today Suspended Indefinitely
“USA Today’s Books list will be on hiatus for the remainder of the year,” a spokesperson said on Monday. “We will share further updates in 2023.”
The weekly list was compiled by using sales of hardcover, paperback, and e-books from various outlets including independent stores and online retailers to curate the 150 bestselling books of the week. USA Today became one of the go-to lists along with The New York Times and Amazon.com.
Losing USA Today’s weekly charts will hurt the industry because having different lists means more books and authors get to be selected and displayed on weekly lists. And 150 books to add to the list is a lot. I can only imagine how much time making the weekly list consumes.
A Down Year for Books
Hopefully this is temporary as I have become used to checking out USA Today’s weekly lists. Many corporations are laying off people as the economy continues to struggle. Book sales have seen a decline of 4 percent compared to the first nine months of last year.
What do you make of USA Today suspending their weekly list indefinitely? Will it make a return in the near future or is this the end? Let us know in the comments below!
I’m fine with gatekeepers like this going away. Let people discover the books they actually like instead of being told what to like.
Yea but these lists do help lesser known books and authors considering they have 150 books and also go to independent stores for data
I agree with you