The Times and The Sunday Times books desks merge

The Times and Sunday Times books desks have merged with Robbie Millen, previously literary editor of the Times only, now presiding over the seven-day operation and Johanna Thomas-Corr, who has been Sunday Times literary editor since January, now moving to the role of chief literary critic.

Millen revealed the team update on Monday (11th December) on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Thomas-Corr said she will she will continue to run the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year prize.

Millen told The Bookseller that while the page count would stay the same there will be less overlap across titles: "There’s going to be no radical change. Just quiet evolution. We’ll keep the excellent roster of Sunday Times reviewers – Max Hastings, Hadley Freeman, Dominic Sandbrook – beavering away in the Culture Section; and, likewise, in Saturday Review we’ll be keeping the distinctive voices of regular writers, such as Tom Whipple, Laura Freeman, Roger Lewis and Melanie Reid. 

"We want both sections to keep their personalities; we don’t want to create a bland blancmange of interchangeable copy. Pagination is due to stay the same for both titles: roughly eight pages in the Times in Saturday Review and nine in the Sunday Times.

"The biggest change will be avoiding duplication in the books we review. While in print there was a logic to both titles reviewing the same books, it looks ever odder to digital subscribers that we might review the same mediocre novel twice. So, from now on for instance, Joan Smith, the ST’s crime critic, and Mark Sanderson, crime critic for the Times, will divvy up crime thrillers so that there is no longer any overlap."

He added: "With a big book, a new Ian McEwan or Margaret Atwood novel, one section will review it, the other will cover it through an author interview or profile or a feature. I hope it means we can broaden our coverage, finding space for books that in the past might have been nudged out. And with Johanna Thomas-Corr, as our chief literary critic, we can cover fiction with a new authority, panache and conviction."

Thomas-Corr was appointed literary editor of the Sunday Times in January when Andrew Holgate became an agent. Millen has been literary editor of the Times since 2013.

Goldsborough became assistant books editor of the Times in 2021. Laura Hackett took on the same role at the Sunday Times in September 2021.

The news comes shortly after The Bookseller surveyed broadsheet literary coverage and noted an increased merging of functions overall at the Times and Sunday Times. The Times’ long-time arts editor, Alex O’Connell, recently revealed her departure after 27 years, with Ben Preston, executive editor and culture editor of the Sunday Times, taking over a seven-day arts operation.