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Backstory:

Inside the Business of News
Front Cover
2 Reviews
Penguin, 2003 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 296 pages
From Howell Raines and the New York Times to Roger Ailes and Fox News, America's most celebrated media journalist dissects the people and institutions shaping media, for good and for ill, in a time of profound change.

It is said that journalism is a vital public service as well as a business, but more and more it is also said that big media consolidation; noisy, instant opinions on cable and the Internet; and political "bias" are making a mockery of such high-minded ideals. In Backstory, Ken Auletta explores why one of America's most important industries is also among its most troubled. He travels from the proud New York Times, the last outpost of old-school family ownership, whose own personnel problems make headline news, into the depths of New York City's brutal tabloid wars and out across the country to journalism's new wave, chains like the Chicago Tribune's, where "synergy" is ever more a mantra. He probes the moral ambiguity of "media personalities"-journalists who become celebrities themselves, padding their incomes by schmoozing with Imus and rounding the lucrative corporate lecture circuit. He reckons with the legacy of journalism's past and the different prospects for its future, from fallen stars of new media such as Inside.com to the rising star of cable news, Roger Ailes's Fox News. The product of more than ten years covering the news media for The New Yorker, Backstory is Journalism 101 by the course's master teacher.
  

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Review: Backstory: Inside the Business of News

User Review  - Bookmarks Magazine - Goodreads

Auletta, whose previous books include Greed and Glory on Wall Street and World War 3.0, is concerned about how the publishing industry affects the practice of journalism, in theory not beholden to ... Read full review

Review: Backstory: Inside the Business of News

User Review  - Will Byrnes - Goodreads

This is a series of articles written for the New Yorker about the news media, more particularly print media. It focuses on the business aspects of print news, company reorganizations, managers and ... Read full review

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Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
1
DEMOLITION MAN
63
NEW YORKS TABLOID WARS
119
THE NEW YORK TIMESS OUTWARD BOUND ADVENTURE
141
THE REPORTER WHO DISAPPEARED
171
FEE SPEECH
185
THE DON
200
INSIDE OUT
233
WE REPORT WE DECIDE
249
Acknowledgments
281
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

Abe Rosenthal advertising Ailes America's Talking American Andersen announced Arthur Sulzberger asked Bear Bryant became believe Boyd Brill Brumback Buckley bureau chief business side cable called campaign Chicago Trihune circulation Clinton columnist correspondent coverage daily desk Dole Dole's dollars editorial-page executive editor former Frankel friends Gay Talese headlines hired Hirschorn Howell Raines Imus Inside Internet interview journalism journalists knew Kurt Andersen Lachlan Murdoch Landman Lelyveld look Madigan magazine managing editor masthead Max Frankel McCurry McLaughlin Group million MSNBC Murdoch newspaper newsroom page-one meeting paid speeches paper percent Phillips political Post president publisher Pulitzer question radio Raines's readers recalls reporters revenues Roger Ailes Rosenthal Rupert Murdoch senior staff story synergy tabloid talk television things thought told Tribune Tribune Company Tribune's Trih Wall Street wanted write York Zuckerman

References to this book

From other books

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References from web pages

Soft news, hard cash.("Backstory: Inside the Business of News" and ...
("Backstory: Inside the Business of News" and "All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News")(Book Review) ...
goliath.ecnext.com/ coms2/ gi_0199-735/ Soft-news-hard-cash-Backstory.html

Newspaper Research Journal: Backstory: Inside the Business of News
Backstory: Inside the Business of News, by Ken Auletta (Penguin, 2003) 296 pages, $24.95. Ken Auletta is often billed as one of America's preeminent media ...
findarticles.com/ p/ articles/ mi_qa3677/ is_200501/ ai_n13634106/ print

Backstory: Inside the Business of News
Backstory: Inside the Business of News. Ken Auletta. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, 2003. 316 pp. $24.95 pbk. Media critic Ken Auletta's latest book.
www.encyclopedia.com/ doc/ 1P3-691407041.html

BW Online | January 12, 2004 | What Doesn't Get In The Paper
Several of those articles form the heart of Backstory: Inside the Business of News. There is extra material as well: an American Journalism Review article ...
www.businessweek.com/ magazine/ content/ 04_02/ b3865014_mz005.htm

Backstory: inside the business of news (Book) (Harper's Magazine)
THINGS CONNECTED TO “Backstory: inside the business of news (Book)”. HUMAN BEINGS. Auletta, Ken · García Márquez, Gabriel ...
harpers.org/ subjects/ BackstoryInsideTheBusinessOfNewsBook

Royce Carlton - Ken Auletta Media Columnist The New Yorker
In 2003, Auletta published Backstory: Inside the Business of News, a collection of his New Yorker stories that explore the journalism industry, its dominant ...
www.roycecarlton.com/ speakers/ auletta_bio.html

Ken Auletta :: Official Site
The Official Ken Auletta Site. Ken has written the Annals of Communications column for The New Yorker Magazine since 1992. He is the author of eight books, ...
www.kenauletta.com/

Auletta: Change is necessary in journalism today
He has also written 10 books, including "Backstory: Inside the Business of News." The Columbia Journalism Review named him the country's top media critic. ...
www.prsa.org/ conf2004/ auletta.html

Portal de la Comunicació incom-UAB > Bibliografia: Llibres de ...
Backstory. Inside the business of news New York: Penguin Press, 2003- Autor/a comentari: Carles Llorens Professor de Comunicació Audiovisual ...
www.portalcomunicacion.com/ cat/ bib_ref_txt.asp?id_nov=87

SF Station: I Read the News Today, Oh Boy
... biases and motives while struggling for a comprehensive view of the world, Ken Auletta's Backstory: Inside the Business of News is required reading. ...
www.sfstation.com/ i-read-the-news-today-oh-boy-a530

About the author (2003)

Ken Auletta has written the "Annals of Communications" column and profiles for The New Yorker since 1992. He is the author of eight books, including Three Blind Mice, Greed and Glory on Wall Street, and World War 3.0. In naming him America's premier media critic, the Columbia Journalism Review said, "No other reporter has covered the new communications revolution as thoroughly as has Auletta.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Backstory
TitleBackstory: Inside the Business of News
AuthorKen Auletta
PublisherPenguin, 2003
ISBN1594200009, 9781594200007
Length296 pages
Subjects › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / General
  
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