BROADCASTS.com

For generations, America\u2019s major publishers focused almost entirely on white readers. Now a new cadre of executives is trying to open up the industry.\n\nThe journalist Marcela Valdes spent a year reporting on what she described as \u201cthe problematic history of diversity in book publishing and the ways it has affected editors, authors and what you see (or don\u2019t see) in bookstores.\u201d\n\nInterviewing more than 50 current and former book professionals, as well as authors, Ms. Valdes learned about the previous unsuccessful attempts to cultivate Black audiences, and considered the intricacies of an industry culture that still struggles to \u201covercome the clubby, white elitism it was born in.\u201d\n\nAs one publishing executive puts it, the future of book publishing will be determined not only by its recent hires but also by how it answers this question: Instead of fighting over slices of a shrinking pie, can publishers work to make the readership bigger for everyone?