Clear out your book-club calendar: Jill Abramson and Drew Barrymore have just signed publishing deals.
Abramson, the first female executive editor of the New York Times, will expound on the future of the media industry, focusing on how older publications are adapting to new business realities and how digital companies are shifting the way the news is gathered and read.
“I’ve been a frontline combatant in the news media’s battle to remain the bedrock of an informed society,” said Abramson. “Now I’m going to wear my reporter’s hat again to tell the full drama of that story in a book, focusing on both traditional and new media players in the digital age.”
Meanwhile, Barrymore will publish a set of autobiographical essays about her life a la Lena Dunham. “I love stories that are humorous, emotional and welcoming, and that is my goal in writing this book,” said the actress.
Her publisher, Dutton, described the upcoming book as stories about Barrymore “living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas-station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying goodbye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led to the most important thing in her life, which is motherhood.”