Whither The New York Times Book Review ?

       As I recently mentioned, after nearly a decade at the helm, Sam Tanenhaus is being succeeded by Pamela Paul as editor of The New York Times Book Review. (Today's issue -- though agreeably heavy on poetry-coverage -- is, unsurprisingly, representative of his translation-phobic standards: not a book in translation in sight (so too last week, etc. etc.).)

       My hopes for the NYTBR under its new administration are the same ones I had when Tanenhaus took over: a greater emphasis on fiction than non, and more coverage of writing in translation (preferably not all by dead authors and/or re-translations -- Tanenehaus' preferred sort).
       Paul has now given several interviews, and while the discussions have been fairly general they perhaps give some insight into her thinking -- so see: Pamela Paul Talks Future of New York Times Book Review by Steve Kettmann at The Daily Beast and New York Times Book Review editor: Featuring diversity of authors is 'extremely important' by Mallary Jean Tenore at Poynter.
       The latter includes this Q&A:

For context's sake, what factors go into determining the books that get reviewed ?

It's a complicated question. ... The short answer comes down to the quality of the book. We also ask ourselves some basic questions: Does this book matter ? Is it a book our readers will want to be aware of ? Is there something interesting to say about it, and a good person to write thoughtfully and intelligently about it ? And we go from there.

       Which all sounds well and good and sensible enough, but given how the selection process has been going for quite a few years now (and given that Paul has been promoted from within (i.e. has been part of the problem process), and given that it doesn't sound like there's any other planned personnel shake-up at the NYTBR ...).....
       Still, one hopes for positive change (and not, for example, yet more bestseller lists taking up the NYTBR's limited pages ...).