‘Today’ Is Starting Oprah-like Book Club

“Today” will introduce a new monthly book club on Tuesday, a happy development for a publishing industry frustrated by years of shrinking television time devoted to authors.

Samantha Shannon

The NBC morning program is expected to announce its first club pick, “The Bone Season,” a dystopian debut novel by Samantha Shannon, on Tuesday with an author interview.

Publishers who had been briefed on the show’s plans said they were giddy at the prospect of a potential successor to Oprah’s Book Club, which began in 1996 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and, in its prime, consistently lifted books to instant best-seller status.

The “Today” selections, chosen every four to five weeks, will be emblazoned with stickers on their covers indicating their inclusion in the club.

“The show has been a home for authors over the years, but many of the books featured on air are typically books that relate to the news in some fashion,” said David Drake, deputy publisher of the Crown Publishing Group. “A book club is going to give an opportunity for books that don’t normally get exposure.”

Sara Mercurio, a spokeswoman for Bloomsbury, the publisher of “The Bone Season,” said that retailers’ orders of the book roughly doubled when they were told that it would be the first selection of the “Today” book club. The book goes on sale on Tuesday.

“One can’t overstate the importance of a nationally televised book club,” especially one with the audience of “Today,” Ms. Mercurio said. “I think it will have a huge impact on this book and on the publishing industry.”

“Today” has settled into the No. 2 spot among the network morning programs, just behind “Good Morning America” on ABC. In July, “Today” had an average 4.4 million daily viewers, “Good Morning America” 5 million.

The book club is the latest example of efforts by “Today” to position itself as a more substantive morning program than the frothier “Good Morning America.” A previous version of a book club on “Today” faded about a decade ago, a spokeswoman said.

The books, chosen by a team of producers and the show’s co-hosts, will include both fiction and nonfiction, newly released titles and classics, said Jaclyn Levin, the senior producer responsible for books and authors on “Today.” Discussion groups and excerpts will be featured online.

The idea to feature “The Bone Season,” a futuristic novel about a 19-year-old clairvoyant, came during conversations between Ms. Levin and Natalie Morales, the news anchor of “Today.”

Ms. Levin, who wields considerable influence in the publishing industry as the gatekeeper to books coverage on “Today,” “Dateline” and “Nightly News With Brian Williams,” said she campaigned for years for the show to resurrect a book club.

“The ‘Today’ show is so recognizable to so many people, and I just think it’s a great opportunity to use that leverage,” she said. “There are so many untold stories that want to be told.”

Publishers have lamented for years that bookings for authors have been more difficult to come by. While some shows, like “The Daily Show” and “CBS Sunday Morning,” can be counted on to promote books, others that did so have disappeared entirely or lost interest in books coverage.

Ms. Morales said that while the show has made a “concerted effort” to devote airtime to authors, it is often difficult to translate a book into good television.

“I think there is some truth to that, that in general it’s been more difficult for the publishing world to get authors on television,” she said, adding that she hoped the new club would have a sizable impact on sales. “The minute a book had that recommendation from Oprah, it would become a best seller. I could certainly hope that would be the same for the ‘Today’ show book club.”

Yet a “Today” book club would lack the passionate endorsement of a single person as beloved as Ms. Winfrey, one of the factors that publishers have cited as a key component to the success of Oprah’s Book Club. (Ms. Winfrey revived her own club in June 2012 as Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, more than a year after the demise of her weekday talk show.)

“There just aren’t television outlets that you can tune into on a regular basis and see authors,” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf Doubleday. “Any media outlet that is willing to invest resources in creating a community of authors and their books is a win for our industry.”

Brian Stelter contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on August 20, 2013, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Today’ Is Starting Oprah-like Book Club.

Britons Question Whether Detention of Reporter’s Partner Was Terror-Related

Marcelo Piu/European Pressphoto Agency

David Michael Miranda, left, with his partner, Glenn Greenwald. Mr. Miranda was held Sunday for nine hours in London.

LONDON â€" Demands grew on Monday for the British government to explain why it had used antiterrorism powers to detain the partner of a journalist who has written about surveillance programs based on leaks by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden.

David Michael Miranda spoke to reporters at Rio de Janeiro's International Airport on Monday.

David Michael Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and the partner of the American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, was held Sunday at London’s Heathrow Airport for nine hours, the maximum allowed by law, before being released without charge. He said Monday that all of his electronic equipment, including his laptop computer and cellphone, had been confiscated.

Mr. Miranda was traveling from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. In Berlin, he had met with Laura Poitras, an American filmmaker who has worked with Mr. Greenwald on the Snowden leaks about secret American and British surveillance programs that they argue violate individual rights and liberties.

The Guardian newspaper, where Mr. Greenwald is a columnist, reported that it had paid for Mr. Miranda’s flights but that he was not an employee of the paper. “As Glenn Greenwald’s partner, he often assists him in his work,” The Guardian said in statement. “We would normally reimburse the expenses of someone aiding a reporter in such circumstances.”

In an e-mail Monday to The Associated Press, Mr. Greenwald said that he needed material from Ms. Poitras for articles he was working on related to the N.S.A., and that he had things she needed. “David, since he was in Berlin, helped with that exchange,” Mr. Greenwald wrote.

Keith Vaz, an opposition Labor Party legislator who is chairman of Parliament’s Home Affairs select committee, said he had written to the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, which has jurisdiction in the matter, to ask for clarification of what he called an extraordinary case.

“What needs to happen pretty rapidly is, we need to establish the full facts,” he told the BBC. “Now you have a complaint from Mr. Greenwald and the Brazilian government â€" they indeed have said they are concerned at the use of terrorism legislation for something that does not appear to relate to terrorism. So it needs to be clarified, and clarified quickly.”

The editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, disclosed on Monday that the British government had sent officials from Government Communications Headquarters, which is known as GCHQ and is the British version of the National Security Agency, to the newspaper’s offices in London to destroy computers containing documents leaked by Mr. Snowden. Mr. Rusbridger said that he had protested that the same information was available elsewhere, but that the officials had insisted on proceeding.

“And so one of the more bizarre moments in The Guardian’s long history occurred â€" with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in The Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents,” he wrote, adding, “We will continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the Snowden documents, we just won’t do it in London.”

The police said in a statement that Mr. Miranda, 28, had been lawfully detained under Schedule 7 of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, which allows them to stop and question people traveling through ports and airports to determine whether they are involved in planning terrorist acts.

Mr. Vaz and his party said they wanted to know how the government could justify using Schedule 7 in this case, arguing that any suggestion that antiterrorism powers had been misused could undermine public support for those powers.

A Home Office spokesman said Monday that the detention was an operational police matter and that neither he nor the police would provide any details. “Schedule 7 forms an essential part of the U.K.’s security arrangements,” the spokesman said. “It is for the police to decide when it is necessary and proportionate to use these powers.”

Charlie Savage contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on August 20, 2013, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Britons Question Whether Detention of Reporter’s Partner Was Terror-Related.

Simon & Schuster and Barnes & Noble Reach a Deal

After a dispute over terms that stretched for most of the year, Simon & Schuster and Barnes & Noble said in a joint statement on Monday that they had “resolved their outstanding business issues.” Both parties “look forward to promoting great books by Simon & Schuster authors,” they said.

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, was locked in a disagreement with Simon & Schuster over how much it was willing to pay for books. Major publishers have said in recent months that Barnes & Noble has sharply increased its demands on publishers while making the case that its stores provide valuable “showroom” space and increase sales as a result.

Barnes & Noble has been placing much smaller orders of Simon & Schuster books since the stalemate has stretched on, damaging sales for authors.

Talks between Simon & Schuster progressed after the abrupt resignation of William Lynch, the chief executive of Barnes & Noble, last month.

All summer, editors at Simon & Schuster have become increasingly nervous that the dispute would remain unresolved before the big fall bookselling season begins after Labor Day.

In an e-mail sent to authors and agents on Monday, Carolyn K. Reidy, the chief executive of Simon & Schuster, thanked them for their support “during this most difficult period.”

“I and my colleagues have felt keenly the effect this trade dispute has had on books published during this time and have tried nevertheless to achieve the best possible distribution and marketing for your books, which we know are the product of many years of effort,” Ms. Reidy said.

Manning’s Lawyers Urge a Lenient Sentence

FORT MEADE, Md. â€" Pfc. Bradley Manning’s defense lawyers on Monday made a last-minute personal plea to the military judge hearing his court-martial, asking her to be lenient in sentencing and allow Private Manning a chance to rehabilitate himself.

Private Manning, 25, has been convicted of disclosing hundreds of thousands of government documents to WikiLeaks, and as the sentencing phase of his trial nears its end, his lawyers are arguing that he is an idealistic if naïve young man who was let down by a commander aware of his troubled mental state.

One of the defense lawyers, David E. Coombs, said Private Manning had demonstrated that he could return to being a productive member of society after a brief prison sentence.

Prosecutors urged the judge, Col. Denise R. Lind, to sentence Private Manning to at least 60 years in prison for violating his oath to serve and protect the United States. The government has said Army commanders could not have known that Private Manning would leak classified materials, no matter his emotional health.

“He’s been convicted of serious crimes,” said Capt. Joe Morrow, a prosecutor. “He betrayed the United States, and for that betrayal he deserves to spend the majority of his remaining life in confinement.”

But Mr. Coombs said Private Manning should not be denied the chance to live a normal life for a leak that has not been proven to be a long-term threat to the country’s security.

“Long after this information probably is no longer even classified â€" if it’s still classified â€" long after that day has passed, the government still wants Pfc. Manning rotting in a jail cell,” he said.

Private Manning faces up to 90 years in prison after being convicted on most charges, including six counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Colonel Lind will begin deliberating the sentence on Tuesday. It is unclear when she will announce his sentence.

MSNBC Brings ‘The Ed Show’ Back to Weekday Lineup

After a slide in its prime-time ratings in recent months, MSNBC made a move on Monday to shore up the hours leading into prime time. The network is bringing back Ed Schultz, once its 8 p.m. anchor, to take over the 5 p.m. weekday slot now occupied by “Hardball.”

At the same time, MSNBC will move an original version of “Hardball,” with its longtime host Chris Matthews, to 7 p.m. “Hardball” has been in that hour, but with a repeat version of its 5 p.m. show.

Mr. Schultz is bringing “The Ed Show” back to a daily slot on MSNBC only five months after he was switched to weekends. At the time, Mr. Schultz said he had requested the change, though other reports cited the network’s desire to move a younger host, Chris Hayes, into its prime-time lineup. But Mr. Schultz had stronger ratings in the 8 p.m. hour than Mr. Hayes has produced.