Smithsonian Plans Cuts in Publishing

By Jacqueline Trescott
The Washington Post

The Smithsonian Institution is dismantling Smithsonian Books, a widely respected publishing division of the museum and research complex that dates back 156 years.

Driven by a loss of $2 million in the past decade, officials said, the move will result in publishing fewer scholarly books and in enlisting corporate partners to make the Smithsonian brand more profitable. Critics assert that overhauling the book unit disrupts an essential part of the original Smithsonian mission - to "increase and diffuse knowledge."