‘New York Journal of Books’ Shutters

May 19, 2025

The New York Journal of Books, an online book review outlet launched in 2010, ceased operations on May 16. Founder Ted Sturtz cited tariffs' effects on consumer behavior as the cause.

In an email to PW, Sturtz said that the NYJB focused exclusively on book reviews in response to the rapid disappearance of Sunday book review sections in newspapers across the country. He also noted that the site's investment in its unique backend technology allowed it to keep operating costs low and staff small. 

The NYJB, which was free to the public, relied on Amazon commissions and Google Adsense for revenue, Sturtz said. The wide-ranging tariffs imposed by the Trump administration last month, he explained, "transform[ed] consumer behavior so that these revenues entirely collapsed. This was so quick and breathtaking that we in a very short we time saw our revenues sink from a surplus to a fraction of our costs."

"Our actual undoing was not publishing industry conditions," Sturtz stressed. "It was the current tariff war." 

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