WSJ to Launch Book Section

The Wall Street Journal will soon launch a weekly book review section—a first for the broadsheet. The newspaper is bucking the trend of papers across the country that have been cutting their book coverage. The book review will be one of the Weekend Journal inserts that will debut later in September, and its size will be “significant,” though it’s unclear if it’ll top the page count of its rival, The New York Times Book Review, at more than 20 pages. Robert Messenger, who’s been an editor at The Weekly Standard and The Atlantic, will head up the new section, and Erich Eichman, the Journal’s book editor for 16 years, will report to him. Messenger will report to Paul Gigot, who edits the editorial page.