A cable-TV channel devoted solely to books is being develolped by a New York City group that includes the author E.L. Doctorow.
Booknet would offer 24-hour-a-day programming, including such features as author interviews, readings, news and reviews, teaching segments, and perhaps book-based films. It is being promoted by Mr. Doctorow and others as a way of boosting the number of “informed book readers in the United States.’'
An independent editorial board will select featured works, which will come from all genres, poetry to popular romance, cookbooks, and scholarly works. Books discussed on the air will be available to viewers through the channel’s planned purchasing service, Cable Bookstore.
Plans call for Booknet to begin broadcasting in mid-1994. Further information is available from Booknet, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 29th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10112; (212) 698-7808.
A free resource booklet encouraging minority students to pursue careers in journalism is available through the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, which sponsors a number of educational programs, many addressed to minority high school students.
According to Newspapers, Diversity, and You, minority journalists currently make up only 10 percent of daily-newspaper staffs, yet, more diverse hiring practices will be needed to reflect the multicultural readership of the 21st century.
The booklet includes interviews and biographies of minority writers and editors, advice on job hunting, statistics on hiring, and starting salaries. It also lists accredited journalism programs at colleges and universities, scholarship opportunities for journalism students, and internship and special-training programs.
Free copies of Newspapers, Diversity, and You are available from the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund at (800) DOWFUND.
A monthly magazine for the 6- to 9-year-old age group has been created by the publishers of Cricket, the award-winning literary and art magazine for youngsters.
Spider Magazine will bridge the gap, the publisher says, between Ladybug Magazine, its monthly for preschool readers, and Cricket, which is for older children.Like its sister publications, Spider will offer folk tales, short stories by famous authors like Ursula LeGuin, and artwork, poems, and reader contributions.
A one-year subscription is available for $29.97 from Spider Magazine, 308 E. Hitt St., Mt. Morris, Ill. 61054-1210; (800) 827-0227.
--S.K.G.
