Hold the Phone

After 65 years, the Dial Books for Young Readers imprint has been closed, triggering some reshuffling throughout the Penguin Young Readers division. Following outcry from the publishing industry and other creative fields, the U.K. government has thrown out a motion that would have put the burden on rightsholders to stop tech firms from using copyrighted material to train AI. Sourcebooks has launched Joyful Pen Books, a new children’s imprint led by author and educator Lavaille Lavette focused on inclusive stories penned by cultural figures. The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce has advanced a bill that would withhold federal funding from school libraries with “sexually oriented materials” in their collections. Jane Fonda is set to star in the Lionsgate film adaptation of Virginia Evans’s The Correspondent, Variety reports, and a TV adaptation of Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is heading to Peacock, per Deadline. Vanity Fair profiles Anthropic founder Dario Amodei and takes an in-depth look at the human drama underpinning AI development. Meanwhile, the New Yorker’s Kyle Chayka surveys how the performance of personal taste is becoming increasingly important in Silicon Valley. David Steinberger chats with W.W. Norton trade group director Brendan Curry on the newest episode of the Open Book podcast. And Lily King and John U. Bacon once again topped the Independent Publishers Caucus’s Indie Press Top 40 lists.