In 2000, after the Tribune Company acquired Times Mirror Corporation, it comprised the most powerful collection of newspapers in the world. How the...
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reviews
Nov 02, 2011
Carol
rated it: 
Two deals, actually, are described in O'Shea's book. One is the Tribune Company's purchase of the Times Mirror company, which made the Los Angeles Times the Chicago Tribune troubled siblings, and the other was the purchase of the Tribune by uberfinancier Sam Zell. O'Shea does a magnificent job of detailing both deals and their aftereffects. O'Shea shifts his narrative pace for each deal. The LA Times fiasco takes on a jack-rabbity stop-and-go feel as O'Shea talks of the caprices of the Chandler
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Nov 15, 2011
Chris
rated it: 
Boy, this stuff sounds familiar. Not because I was following the trials and Tribuneilations of the newspaper business over the last few years -- I wasn't paying that much attention -- but because so much of it sounds like what has gone around me for the last year or so. This is a great example of what happens when metrics fail to meet vision.
O'Shea tries to make a case that the "moguls and Wall Street" destroyed the newspaper business over the last decade. I'm not sure he s More...
O'Shea tries to make a case that the "moguls and Wall Street" destroyed the newspaper business over the last decade. I'm not sure he s More...
Oct 17, 2011
Dawn
rated it:
The Deal From Hell by James O’Shea is about the changes of journalism. The truth is that news media is changing and it is in trouble. People rely on honest journalism not a quick by-line but actual journalism where someone has researched a story and found evidence and support then that journalist will retell the tale so everyone can understand and be informed. Instead our world is becoming increasingly full of sound bites and quick articles from the wire.
James O’Shea attempts to pain More...
James O’Shea attempts to pain More...
Dec 11, 2011
Brad
rated it:
O'Shea may think he's written a book about how profit-driven, ego-centric people ruined some of the nation's largest papers, but that's because his own biases are at work here.
Actually what this book does is paint a picture of why it's hard to run a newspaper as a for-profit business with the goal of constantly increasing revenue.
He belittles the bosses that want to print the stories "people want" involving celebraties and gossip rather than important news of conf More...
Actually what this book does is paint a picture of why it's hard to run a newspaper as a for-profit business with the goal of constantly increasing revenue.
He belittles the bosses that want to print the stories "people want" involving celebraties and gossip rather than important news of conf More...
Jun 29, 2011
Therman
rated it:
Well-reported albeit biased insider look at the current state of print journalism and how it got here. Very easy to read. Recommended for journalism buffs.
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