Customer Reviews

Citizen Newhouse: Portrait of a Media Merchant

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Carol Felsenthal has made all the right moves in research, writing and having published the excellent biography CITIZEN NEWSHOUSE. She interviewed hundreds of people, came up with a strong story line and kept it up hundreds of pages later. Alas, this readable study of a publisher broke an unwritten rule in the business of publishing writers: don't write about us. When finished, Viking accepted her work then, violating its contract, said it wouldn't publish it because "people we know are on every page." It was left to Seven Stories to pick it up. While Ms. Felsenthal didn't have a fatwa issued against her, any freedom-respecting reader should buy a copy to support those who challenge the powers that be simply by writing the truth.

An enormous undertaking, with awesome research, and a comfortable easy read doesn't improve either the personality of or the aura that has surrounded Si Newhouse since his college years. Ms. Felsenthal's portrayal of this self-concerned, thoughtless print media mogul is written with sharp, honest and precise clarity. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and this author has neatly recorded it all. The print fraternity will not like this one!

This lady has an astounding way of taking you to the moment! The research is awesome and the ability to create the incidents, characteristics, and responses is eerie! It WAS just as Ms. Felsenthal writes.....it was like re-reading a part of my past. This lady's talent is quite remarkable when one considers she's written a page-turner about a somewhat prickly, eccentric, even though very privileged guy!

This book tells a saga that engages its readers, enticing them to read on and find out what happens next. I never cease to be amazed at the lives led by those with the resources of the world at their disposal. And these are the people who decide what you and I will read, hear, and see. Powerful people like Si Newhouse expose the lives of others in their magazines and newspapers, but they resist any attempt to shine that same light on themselves. I found _Citizen Newhouse_ to be a real page-turner, a book I couldn't put down. I wanted to see: Would Si run the company into the ground? Would Donald again come to the rescue? Would hard-working editors get sacked as soon as Newhouse put his name on their companies? _Citizen Newhouse_ is a fascinating read. Anyone who enjoys good nonfiction written in a clean, journalistic style will enjoy this book.

A crime to have cut trees for this tripe. Poor grammar; confusuing; gossipy gushing; zero insights into their business affairs; zero facts on thier affairs & escapades; packed with trivial facts