John Williams has been hired to edit the New York Times‘s online book blog, Paper Cuts. Alex Star, an editor at the Book Review, announced the news earlier today.
“He’s replacing Blake Wilson, who was promoted to be the deputy editor of the Metropolitan section a few months ago,” wrote Mr. Star in an e-mail to The Observer. “He’ll be taking charge of our Paper Cuts blog, and adding new features to it that he’ll both be writing and editing.”
Mr. Williams is the founder of The Second Pass, a literary web site. He worked as an editor at HarperCollins from 2001 to 2007 and started The Second Pass in 2009.
[UPDATE. Mr. Star had this clarification: “Paper Cuts is no longer a standalone blog, since it merged with the ArtsBeat blog; and with John’s arrival we look forward to expanding our online books coverage across the Times site and not just within the blog form.” Even better!]
