Change I believe in: new initiatives at PW.(Foreword)(Publishers Weekly)

Call me gullible or impressionable, but I'm actually feeling kind of hopeful this week. It's not just the new year or the inauguration (which I loved most for its goofs and gaffes) or even that--please, please--publishing business firings are coming to an end, at least for a while. Then again, maybe I am buoyed by the start of the Obama presidency: While I know change is going to be slow in coming, it's energizing to look at what we've already started, at what we can do now.

For example, last week we launched a new feature on Publishersweekly.com. Developed from an idea a brilliant friend from San Francisco threw out at a dinner party in August, we came up with Review …