Paper of Wreckage
The Rogues, Renegades, Wiseguys, Wankers, and Relentless Reporters Who Redefined American Media
Table of Contents
About The Book
By the 1970s, the country’s oldest continuously published newspaper had fallen on hard times, just like its nearly bankrupt hometown. When the New York Post was sold to a largely unknown Australian named Rupert Murdoch in 1976, staffers hoped it would be the start of a new golden age for the paper.
Now, after the nearly fifty years Murdoch has owned the tabloid, American culture reflects what Murdoch first started in the 1970s: a celebrity-focused, noisy, one-sided media empire that reached its zenith with Fox News.
Drawing on extensive interviews with key players and in-depth research, this eye-opening, wildly entertaining oral history shows us how we got to this point. It’s a rollicking tale full of bad behavior, inflated egos, and a corporate culture that rewarded skirting the rules and breaking norms. But working there was never boring and now, you can discover the entire remarkable true story of America’s favorite tabloid newspaper.
About The Authors
Susan Mulcahy started at the New York Post as a copygirl while still in college. She worked at “Page Six” from 1978 to 1985, including three years as editor, before moving to Newsday to write a rival column. She has also written for The New Yorker and The New York Times.
Frank DiGiacomo worked as a “Page Six” freelancer in the late 1980s and became an editor of the column from 1991 to 1993. He has since worked as a writer and editor, covering media and the entertainment business, for Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, and Billboard, where he is currently an executive editor.
Product Details
- Publisher: Atria Books (October 8, 2024)
- Length: 592 pages
- ISBN13: 9781982164850
Raves and Reviews
“[A] lively and sprawling new book. . . . Fistfights, drug deals, sex in stairwells, debauched Christmas parties and memories of mobbed-up employees are recounted. . . . [C]atnip if you are a writer, editor or journalism nut.”
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“An insightful, funny, thoughtful, sad and relentlessly engaging look at a paper, a city, a profession and its participants.”
—Society of Professional Journalists
“If you have as good a time reading this newspaper as we have writing for it, you’ll eat up every word of Paper of Wreckage. It’s a rollicking read.”
—Mike Vaccaro, The New York Post
“Paper of Wreckage vividly captures the New York Post’s bawdy, brash, bare-knuckled journalism. It’s The Front Page meets Animal House.”
—Jeannette Walls, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Glass Castle
“Five decades worth of raucous behind-the-scenes anecdotes, from the creation of the notorious headline ‘Headless Body in Topless Bar’ to the genesis of the popular gossip column Page Six, fill this scintillating oral history of the New York Post. . . . It’s a juicy, gonzo slice of New York history.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An absolutely fun read, a rollicking oral history of the great paper chase of New York tabloid journalism.”
—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and the Director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography
“I've started each day for the past four decades with the Post, particularly Page Six —the daily chronicle of the life of New York’s bold-faced parade floats. In delightful detail, Paper of Wreckage relives the highlights and lowlights of this incendiary patch of ink and paper. And it reminds me that this was probably as good a way to spend my early mornings, as say, working out.”
—Graydon Carter, editor, Air Mail
“The commentary from the candid interviewees, like the Post itself, has it all, from delightfully sublime and critically incisive to completely nonsensical. . . . An interesting and rollicking narrative that will stand as a significant contribution to the history of mass media.”
—Kirkus
“A deeply fascinating—and considerably unsettling—look at the way American journalism has been transformed over the past five decades.”
—Booklist
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Paper of Wreckage eBook 9781982164850
- Author Photo (jpg): Susan Mulcahy D’Arcy Hyde(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
- Author Photo (jpg): Frank DiGiacomo Bonnie Burke(0.1 MB)
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