August 12, 2025, 11:21am

In good news for people who love bad news, the Associated Press is apparently ending its regular literary coverage. Starting September 1st, the national news source and media hub will no longer release their standardized, stand-alone reviews for new books.

As Dan Kennedy of Media Nation reported Friday, an internal memo was sent to the freelance contributor stable informing writers of the shift. Here’s an excerpt of that note:

Unfortunately, the audience for book reviews is relatively low and we can no longer sustain the time it takes to plan, coordinate, write and edit reviews. AP will continue covering books as stories, but at the moment those will handled exclusively by staffers.

Publishers Lunch observed that there have been no changes made to the AP staff. So we can safely assume this move is pure contraction.

So what does a winnowed AP mean for book coverage in general? Individual mileage varies, of course. But historically, AP arts coverage has been particularly important because smaller and local papers tend to syndicate AP reviews, which are written for a wide, non-partisan audience. Absent their standard blurbs, smaller outlets that can’t afford to staff a books section may be forced to stop circulating literary news full stop.

This timing is especially sobering given recent news on the national media stage. The New York Times announced earlier this year that it will be shaking up its approach to theatre criticism in attempt to reach readers “not only through traditional reviews.”

The staffing shifts follow an anemic year of play coverage, and all signs now point to a diminished emphasis on live arts criticism in general, over at the paper of record.

Of course, finding new ways to meet digital native readers (and viewers) where they scroll must be the prerogative of any outlet in 2025. But if you believe that criticism is part of a healthy artistic ecosystem, the turn toward short-form, easily grammed coverage over considered close reads is a little dispiriting.

And in the case of AP book reviews, coverage is coverage. If no one writes about a debut novel that doesn’t make a “story” level splash, it’ll be that much harder for a new reader to find.

Not everyone across the arts is so convinced we’re doomed. But we’ll keep yelling at the sky over here. Head on over to Bookmarks for the latest critical round-ups. Long live book criticism!