September 30, 2006

Easy to Scoop a Book as Woodard's Tome Proves

The NY Times and the NY Daily News embarrassed the Washington Post by scooping them about portions of Bob Woodward new book State of Denial. How did the Times get a hold of a book that won't be on sale until next week? Easy, they went to a bookstore and got someone to break the strict-on-sale date. At my bookstore copies of Woodard's book were in for days. I could have cut open a box, bought one, and scooped everyone. Of course I would have lost my job. It's even possible the stores didn't think they did anything wrong. Bookstores like most retail outlets is staffed by lots of part-timers. It's hard for managers to communicate all the fine points to all employees. Some bookseller might have just saw a pile of State of Denial in the backroom and thought it would be nice to stock them on the book floor. Stuff like that happens.

Other than plot points to the next Harry Potter novel it's not hard to get a scoop on a book that has been printed and shipped to stores.

"Post Rushes Woodward Story After Other Papers Scoop It"