The culture desk

Culture in this paper means work that people make and the rooms it is shown in: books, film, television, music, theater, food, and design. Popular film and music also live under Entertainment, which is a stream of this desk, not a separate mill.

We will review. We will interview. We will report the business of culture when the business is the story — labor on a set, the closing of a room, a public fund that pays for a festival, a streamer’s cancellation, a publisher’s advance. Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Spotify, Penguin Random House, and the rest appear here as companies when the company is the point, and as catalogues when the work is the point.

What we will not do

We will not publish slideshows of openings. We will not trade a write-up for a ticket. A publicist’s embargo is a scheduling courtesy, not a veto. How reviews work is a separate piece on this desk.

Pitches: editorial@lapress.org. Say what the work is, when it opens, and why it is a story rather than an announcement.