Bestselling Books Survive Media Cuts

For the longest-time, cities have turned to their local newspaper(s) for bestselling book lists. In Edmonton, the Journal was the news outlet with the most regular book coverage.

But, cuts at parent company Postmedia saw the local paper lose its ability to cover much local arts, so the Book Publisher’s Association of Alberta got creative to get word out on what Edmontonians are reading. There are now two online media sites publishing Edmonton’s best-selling books.

You can see the lists posted every Thurdsday at a pair of political news websites.

Daveberta

and AlbertaPolitics.ca.

The stats come from Edmonton’s big independent bookstore, Audreys Books.

It did cause disappointment when the Journal announced it would cut back arts and book coverage. Thanks to some community thinking though, the Book Publishers found new homes for the bestseller list and Edmonton readers can still see some of the books their neighbours are buying. Make sure you bookmark those websites or follow the Daves – @davecournoyer and @davidclimenhaga – to see what’s topping the sales list each week.

And the Edmonton Journal? It still has some book coverage.