Zoe T. Leroy links interesting article on the death of book pages from L.A. Times

"The truth is that the book and newspaper businesses share the same dreadful fear: that people will stop reading. And the fear may be well-founded. Across the country, newspaper circulations are down — and this is clearly part of the reason for the cuts to book sections. At the same time, the book business increasingly relies on an aging customer base that may not be refueling itself with enough new readers.

In the past, newspaper executives understood the symbiotic relationship between their product and books. People who read books also read newspapers. From that basic tenet came a philosophy: If you foster books, you foster reading. If you foster reading, you foster newspapers. That loss-leader ends up helping you build and keep your base."

Was reading this and felt like he made some thoughtful and interesting points, not the usual kvetching of Why Are Reviews Not Critical Enough? Why Are Book Pages Shrinking? It's written by Michael Connelly. What do you think?