As of today, Political Theory Daily Review is sponsored by Bookforum magazine. For a while now, PTDR has provided the widest and deepest pool of links to late-breaking, scholarly, and/or esoteric articles available on the web.
What sponsorship means, first of all, is that there will finally be something keeping the site running apart from the constant labor of its creator, Alfredo Perez. When I interviewed him about 18 months ago, he was hoping it would eventually develop some kind of relationship with a magazine. Otherwise it sounded like a hobby that had turned into a demanding part-time job done pro bono. He had discussions with a couple of other places before working something out with Bookforum.
The other consequence is that PTDR’s range of coverage, which has always been broader than its title might suggest, will now begin to include more literary and cultural news. I’m told by Eric Banks, the editor of Bookforum, that there will be other developments down the line — maybe a redesign.
That Alfredo is able to continue to exercise his knack for finding interesting new articles (at what seems like ten thousand websites around the world) is a positive thing, all around. Especially for any blogs out there pinching links from him….
{ 6 comments }
bubbles 02.26.07 at 1:05 pm
This is good news all around. PTDR is an invaluable resource.
I’m told by Eric Banks, the editor of Bookforum, that there will be other developments down the line—maybe a redesign.
An RSS feed would be a real windfall. I too frequently forget about politicaltheory.info in the course of my daily routine since so much of my browsing is now done in an RSS reader.
Russell Arben Fox 02.26.07 at 1:19 pm
Alfredo Perez has worked harder over the years at putting together his links on a nearly daily basis than any blogger has worked at anything comparable that I’m aware of. For months, I’ve been clicking on PTDR in the morning, thinking the site has got to shut down; that the whole thing was just too much work for one man. But even when he claimed that he was going to be cutting back a while ago, he still consistently delivered great stuff, and more of it than I could imagine ever finding on my own. My thanks, Alfredo; for people into your sort of thing (like me), you’ve been a godsend.
Patrick S. O'Donnell 02.26.07 at 1:56 pm
I second Professor Fox’s remarks.
Joel Turnipseed 02.26.07 at 6:32 pm
Hey, that’s great: Perez puts together a fantastic site. And, man, does he find everything–I seem to remember he once posted a link to an interview I’d done with my college newspaper. If that isn’t some serious dredging, I don’t know what is.
I don’t know how he can add more though: can Bookforum possibly have deep enough pockets for him to add staff? I know Mike Tronnes at Cursor.org has a hell of a time keeping up there–and as great a job as he does (I think he has one staff person), he’s ALWAYS scrambling just to keep the site up even with their more limited focus.
Guru 02.26.07 at 7:42 pm
In Bloglines, I found this feed for PTDR.
Ingrid Robeyns 02.27.07 at 9:29 pm
I’m working on two different computers – on one my browser opens with CT, on the other with PTDR. That shows how important I think that site is – hence my thanks too for this wonderful gift, Alfredo.
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