Pictures of the Day: Syria and Elsewhere

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Photos from Syria, Bahrain, Iran and Bangladesh.

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Are Book Excerpts From Times Writers a Conflict of Interest

From time to time, I print and respond to a reader’s question on this blog.

Here’s one from Peter Grabell of Encinitas, Calif. He wrote to me two weeks ago, just after a lengthy excerpt from the reporter Sam Roberts’s new book on the history of Grand Central Terminal appeared in The Times on Jan. 20. Mr. Grabell wrote, in part:

I found it a very interesting article and, as a result, am inclined to purchase and read Mr. Roberts’s entire book. But it raised the question in my mind of The Times’s policy, if any, concerning a potential conflict in publishing a newsworthy story in which the author also stands to profit. Is it The Times’s policy to publish excerpts from all books written by its reporters, or just certain books If the latter, which criteria do the paer’s editors apply to select which writings are newsworthy Does The Times have a financial interest in Mr. Roberts’s publishing company, or in any other publisher through which its reporters have published books that were excerpted in the paper

The short answer is that The Times has no financial interest in promoting Mr. Roberts’s book and that it chooses book excerpts based on newsworthiness or the likelihood of reader interest. Those are hard to pin down or define, but editors know them when they see them. Mr. Roberts’s history of Grand Central Terminal was a natural choice.

The editor who worked on the excerpt, Amy Virshup, puts it this way:

“I don’t love doing excerpts - I usually prefer our own reporting. But if I were going to assign someone to write about the history of Grand Central, it would probably be Sam Roberts. Since he’d already written it, it seemed foolish not to publish it.”

And. she noted, t! here is high reader interest in the building. “People love the building,” she said. “Millions of them stream through it every year, and it’s really a glory of the built environment, the 100th anniversary of which certainly seemed worth marking.”

Ms. Virshup, the editor of the Metropolitan section in Sunday’s paper, noted that it was clearly labeled an excerpt on the first page of the article, as book excerpts generally are.

The article did get a warm reception with readers. It garnered more than 1,300 messages on Twitter over that weekend, had 125,000 page views and was on the most viewed and most e-mailed lists, according to Ms. Vishup.

I asked Mr. Roberts to respond as well. He observed that, while he does stand to profit if people buy his book, “I also stand to profit if more people read The Times in print and online, which is why I try to write interesting stories so The Times will keep publishing and employing me.” He also noted that the accompanying video on the building’s anniversary did not mention the book at all.

Sometimes, The Times publishes excerpts from books published under the rubric of Times Books, in a partnership with the Henry Holt publishing house. When The Times does publish such excerpts, it clearly states the name of the book’s publisher.

I think it speaks directly to the reader’s concern that The Times doesn’t make it a rule to publish excerpts from Times Books.

I asked Alex Ward, editorial director of book development, to address this point. He said:

In 2011, a year in which we published six books, three of them - “Reckless Endangerment” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, “The Wizard of Lies” by Diana B. Henriques and “The Corner Office” by Adam Bryant - were excerpted (actually “adapted” would be a better word) in the Sunday Business section. Two front-page arti! cles with! news that Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker uncovered while reporting their book “Counterstrike” also appeared that year, and the book was mentioned in both. But many years have gone by when none of our books are excerpted.

It seems pretty clear to me that reader interest, not book promotion, is what’s going on here. And that’s as it should be.

Byker in Black-and-White

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On clear days in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, a small yet bustling working-class city in northeast England, the view from the hills of Byker can be spectacular. That shabby neighborhood’s rows of brick houses and terraced streets overlook a historic city center, the river and somtimes far beyond.

Those vistas were rare in 1969, when Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, a 21-year-old Finnish photographer, arrived. The landscape was cloaked in an industrial fog belched from the coal and shipbuilding industries.

Despite the grayness, the laughter and vivacity that radiated from this close-knit community appealed to Ms. Konttinen. It welcomed a young foreigner whose presence stoked curiosity, but also generosity. They joked with her in pubs. Some of the older women took her under their wing â€" she kindled a protective instinct in them.

“People were baffled by my choice to live there,” Ms. Konttinen recalled. “Not that many people had any idea where Finland was, but if they did, they thought it such a beautiful clean country, and why would I choose to come to Byker”

She had ventured there because of Amber Collective, a progressive documentary project that she helped ! found, which chronicled the lives of working people in northeast England. The group was formed in London by a handful of students who made a film following Vietnam War demonstrations at Grosvenor Square that turned violent. Titled “All You Need Is Dynamite,” it was just a student effort, but its makers found they shared a philosophy.

Before long, they had relocated to Newcastle.

The city was in decline. Urban planners sought flashy new development projects, and some sections, like Byker, were scheduled for demolition. Ms. Konttinen was unaware that she was documenting a place that was about to disappear. Not drawn to gloomy topics, she found the place spirited and interesting.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen/Amber Collective Kendal Street, 1969.

“Initially, I don’t think we ever thought that we need to document it because it will be the only thing left for people to remember the place and what the area was like,” she said. “I personally have never felt that that was my mission.”

The Amber Collective has produced an enormous amount of material, dating back decades, that is focused on the communities of northeast England, although Ms. Konttinen’s Byker pictures are probably the collective’s best-known project. That work was published as a book in 1983; Amber also released a film companion of the same name, and in 2011 her documentation was registered with the Unesco U.K. Memory of the World. For the first time, the series as a whole will be shown in the United States, on view at the L. Parker Stephenson Gallery from Feb. 15 through May 18. M! s. Kontti! nen will also deliver a lecture at the International Center for Photography on Feb. 13.

In recent years, she returned to Byker. The new Byker is changed â€" more on that Friday â€" and the changes required her to reconsider her approach when she decided to photograph it. The newer project, “Byker Revisited,” is a result of a far more collaborative endeavor. Not that she hadn’t collaborated in other ways with a subject before. Her 1971 photo of Heather (Slide 3) brought about one such relationship.

“I heard music coming from a derelict house,” she said. “This was one of the last terraces before the final demolition, and there were no steps left to the house, but upstairs I heard music, piano, coming out the windows.”

She entered the house, climbing a rickety staircase to where the music was coming from. She found a girl, Heather, “playing the piano, banging the notes that were kind o stuck and unstuck.”

Ms. Konttinen and Heather started talking, and Ms. Konttinen taught her a simple tune.

“I told her if she ever wanted to come and play, she could come and play it again on my piano,” Ms. Konttinen said. Heather showed up a few days later, with her little brother. On Ms. Konttinen’s piano, they played the tune together.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen/Amber Collective Agnes Jolly Smurthwaite, 1975.

Friday: Returning to Byker, in color.

“Byker” will be on view at the L. Parker Stephenson Gallery from Feb. 15 through May 18. Ms. Konttinen will also deliver a lecture at the International! Center f! or Photography on Feb. 13.

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Byker in Black-and-White

In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here.

#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}

On clear days in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, a small yet bustling working-class city in northeast England, the view from the hills of Byker can be spectacular. That shabby neighborhood’s rows of brick houses and terraced streets overlook a historic city center, the river and somtimes far beyond.

Those vistas were rare in 1969, when Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, a 21-year-old Finnish photographer, arrived. The landscape was cloaked in an industrial fog belched from the coal and shipbuilding industries.

Despite the grayness, the laughter and vivacity that radiated from this close-knit community appealed to Ms. Konttinen. It welcomed a young foreigner whose presence stoked curiosity, but also generosity. They joked with her in pubs. Some of the older women took her under their wing â€" she kindled a protective instinct in them.

“People were baffled by my choice to live there,” Ms. Konttinen recalled. “Not that many people had any idea where Finland was, but if they did, they thought it such a beautiful clean country, and why would I choose to come to Byker”

She had ventured there because of Amber Collective, a progressive documentary project that she helped ! found, which chronicled the lives of working people in northeast England. The group was formed in London by a handful of students who made a film following Vietnam War demonstrations at Grosvenor Square that turned violent. Titled “All You Need Is Dynamite,” it was just a student effort, but its makers found they shared a philosophy.

Before long, they had relocated to Newcastle.

The city was in decline. Urban planners sought flashy new development projects, and some sections, like Byker, were scheduled for demolition. Ms. Konttinen was unaware that she was documenting a place that was about to disappear. Not drawn to gloomy topics, she found the place spirited and interesting.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen/Amber Collective Kendal Street, 1969.

“Initially, I don’t think we ever thought that we need to document it because it will be the only thing left for people to remember the place and what the area was like,” she said. “I personally have never felt that that was my mission.”

The Amber Collective has produced an enormous amount of material, dating back decades, that is focused on the communities of northeast England, although Ms. Konttinen’s Byker pictures are probably the collective’s best-known project. That work was published as a book in 1983; Amber also released a film companion of the same name, and in 2011 her documentation was registered with the Unesco U.K. Memory of the World. For the first time, the series as a whole will be shown in the United States, on view at the L. Parker Stephenson Gallery from Feb. 15 through May 18. M! s. Kontti! nen will also deliver a lecture at the International Center for Photography on Feb. 13.

In recent years, she returned to Byker. The new Byker is changed â€" more on that Friday â€" and the changes required her to reconsider her approach when she decided to photograph it. The newer project, “Byker Revisited,” is a result of a far more collaborative endeavor. Not that she hadn’t collaborated in other ways with a subject before. Her 1971 photo of Heather (Slide 3) brought about one such relationship.

“I heard music coming from a derelict house,” she said. “This was one of the last terraces before the final demolition, and there were no steps left to the house, but upstairs I heard music, piano, coming out the windows.”

She entered the house, climbing a rickety staircase to where the music was coming from. She found a girl, Heather, “playing the piano, banging the notes that were kind o stuck and unstuck.”

Ms. Konttinen and Heather started talking, and Ms. Konttinen taught her a simple tune.

“I told her if she ever wanted to come and play, she could come and play it again on my piano,” Ms. Konttinen said. Heather showed up a few days later, with her little brother. On Ms. Konttinen’s piano, they played the tune together.

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen/Amber Collective Agnes Jolly Smurthwaite, 1975.

Friday: Returning to Byker, in color.

“Byker” will be on view at the L. Parker Stephenson Gallery from Feb. 15 through May 18. Ms. Konttinen will also deliver a lecture at the International! Center f! or Photography on Feb. 13.

Follow Lens on Facebook and Twitter.