In 2021, as the pandemic raged, the Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading went virtual, online and impersonal. St. Petersburg’s long-running celebration of books, authors and literature returned in person at the Palladium Theater in 2022 and 2023.
This year would be the 32nd.and The reading festival will not take place at all.
The Just did not say that the event was officially sold out and had been consigned to the dustbin of history. Only that it had been cancelled for 2024.
Book editor Colette Bancroft was the lead organizer of the Festival of Reading since 2007, which was then held at the St. Petersburg campus of the University of South Florida and the neighboring Poynter Institute.
Bancroft, who is Just employee in 1997, accepted the company’s takeover offer this week. “This means that I will continue working at Just “At the end of this month,” she explained. “I couldn’t stay until November to participate, so they decided to cancel it for this year. Whether it will resume, I don’t know.”
The Just announced that it would have to cut 60 jobs, or 20 percent of the workforce, as part of cost-cutting measures. The severance package included four weeks’ additional severance pay for anyone who voluntarily opted in.
READ MORE: Tampa Bay Times offers severance pay; layoffs may follow
Downsizing is part of a trend in the world of daily journalism. “With notable exceptions,” Bancroft said, “in newspapers, mostly large, national newspapers, book reviews are either non-existent or almost non-existent. And of course I’ve seen that. I’ve been telling people for years, ‘I’m an endangered species.'”
“The industry is struggling to get back on its feet, and it is precisely at this point that many newspapers have decided to make cuts.”
“So no, it wasn’t a big shock or anything.”
Bancroft sits on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. “I’m in my fourth term; I’ve been on the board on and off for over 10 years. It’s an organization with over 700 members – but very few of those members work for newspapers. They write for all sorts of other platforms and media.”
Her author interviews, reports and book reviews often appeared in the Justbut the festival’s move to the Palladium’s Hough Hall stage put her squarely in the spotlight, giving one-on-one interviews to an audience and requiring attendees to buy tickets for the first time.
It was a dramatic change in format from the USF/Poynter era, which featured a wide range of author talks and events spread across multiple institutions.
Bancroft says she feared the Festival of Reading would fall victim to its inevitable demise. “I’ve been giving up hope for years,” she says, “and thought, ‘This will be the year they say we just can’t do this anymore.'”
“Because until last year it didn’t make any money. It was a free event. The newspaper has paid for it all these years as a kind of marketing and publicity event for the community.
“If there’s anything that surprises me, it’s that it took this long.”
Bancroft, who is an avid reader, said she plans to write about books part-time or as a freelancer for other media outlets.
“I am sadder about the cancellation of the festival than about my own departure. Because I was planning to retire; I am past retirement age. I had been thinking about retiring last year.
“So this changes my schedule a little bit. For me, the adjustment is not as difficult as for other people. But I am very sad that the festival is not happening this year.”
