"In the October 10, 1896 issue of The New York Times, amidst such headlines as “Outrage Committed by Tramps,” “An Insane Man’s Terrible Deed,” and “Parade Day in Chicago,” there was an announcement:
We begin to-day the publication of a Supplement which contains reviews of the new books, the announcements of the publishers, an epitome of the leading articles in the domestic and foreign magazines, information and comment relating to art, and other interesting matter which may appropriately be associated with the literary and art news of the day. This Book Review Supplement will appear hereafter every Saturday morning. We commend it to the attention of our readers, who will observe that its form will enable them easily to preserve the successive numbers.
That first literary supplement contained ten unsigned reviews, publishers’ fall lists, an essay bemoaning the use of clichés in novels, and a warning about booksellers being driven out of business by department stores. Not much has changed, then.
(One thing that has changed: At the time, it was $10 a year to receive the paper—16 pages plus supplement—seven days a week, which was edited by Francis Whiting Halsey and published by Adolph S. Ochs, the great-great-grandfather of the paper’s current publisher, A.G. Sulzberger.)
The section “found immediate favor with readers, but not with advertisers,” wrote Elmer Davis in his history of the paper.
Book publishers argued that when the book reviews were embodied in the regular news columns of the paper, as had previously been the custom, they and the adjacent advertising would be seen by the general reader; whereas if they were segregated in a special supplement they would receive the attention only of the limited and presumably impecunious section of the reading public which was interested in books.
Only very slowly did the publishers realize that people who were interested in books were more likely to buy books when they had any money to buy them than those who irritably turned over the sheet in order to escape from the book reviews to the sporting news on the next page.
Also still true, no doubt. In 1911, the supplement was moved from Saturday to Sunday, “on the theory,” wrote David W. Dunlap, “that it would be more appreciatively received by readers with a bit of time on their hands.” Just (we hope) like the readers of this newsletter."
(Source: lithub.com)
