Examining the effect of big business on American newspapers, this volume traces the history of a twenty-five year struggle between two Detroit newspapers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this emblematic, worrisome and involving account, Gruley, a reporter for the Detroit News Washington bureau, describes how the Gannett Company and Knight-Ridder, owners of the country's two largest newspaper chains, tried to end the competition between their Detroit papers. Gannett, which dominated in the small-town market, had only recently acquired the conservative Detroit News . Knight-Ridder, which included the Philadelphia Inquirer and Miami Herald in its empire, owned the more liberal Free Press . In a strategy to regain dwindling readership and advertisers, the companies in 1986 proposed to form the Joint Operating Agency under which they would merge business operations but maintain separate editorial units. The JOA passed muster with the Justice Department, but protest groups challenged the arrangement until in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled the JOA was legal. Gruley provides deft sketches of the personalities involved as well as accounts of the legal battles and corporate maneuverings. He pulls no punches in discussing his boss, Gannett chairman Al Neuharth, whom he shows to be a hard-driving, vain dealmaker. He also empathetically presents the plight of staff members who worked under Knight-Ridder's threats to shut down the Free Press if the JOA was not approved. Ironically, the papers, according to the author, continue to hemorrhage money despite the JOA takeover--and still face the uncertainty of survival.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A heartfelt take on two heartland dailies that (following a lengthy battle for local dominance) joined forces after a fashion; by a Detroit News journalist who covered the twisty story's denouement and understands its varied implications. Gruley first provides background on a once-vigorous rivalry between his publication (an afternoon paper) and the Free Press (Motown's morning sheet). While previously profitable, he notes, both began losing big money during the 1980's due to a combination of socioeconomic developments. A 1985 takeover of the News by Gannett (the largest newspaper chain in the US) led to the negotiation of a joint-operating agency (JOA) with the hated Free Press (owned by Knight-Ridder, another fourth-estate colossus). Under terms of such accords, same-city newspapers are allowed to amalgamate their advertising, circulation, production, and allied activities while maintaining separate editorial staffs. By federal law, however, JOAs (which investors favor for their capacity to improve income statements) must be endorsed by the Justice Department--and, after a good deal of acrimonious debate, Attorney General Edwin Meese III approved the News/Free Press agreement. But unions and public-interest groups opposed the limited get-together right up through the Supreme Court, where, in late 1989, they lost their case on a four-to-four vote. Gruley offers tellingly detailed accounts of the roles played by high-profile participants (Clark Clifford, Jack Kent Cooke, Norman Lear, Ralph Nader, Al Neuharth, et al.) and a host of lesser lights in what amounted to a high- stakes game of chicken. He also does a good job of reckoning the costs, concluding that Detroit would have been better served if the market had been left to decide which paper was fittest to survive. In the wake of the protracted, enervating struggle, Gruley observes, neither paper is equipped to compete with, let alone best, rival media. An informative rundown on an encounter that could prove a watershed in the evolution (or devolution) of America's metropolitan dailies. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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More About the Author
Bryan Gruley is the author of two novels, the award-winning STARVATION LAKE and prize-nominated THE HANGING TREE, as well as the forthcoming THE SKELETON BOX. He is a reporter at large for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek. The former Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal shared in the Pulitzer Prize given to the Wall Street Journal in 2002 for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. A graduate of Notre Dame, Gruley was raised in Michigan and spent the beginnings of his journalism career working at newspapers in Kalamazoo and Detroit. An avid hockey player and amateur musician, he currently lives with his family in Chicago.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enduring Classic,
By Sam (New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Paper Losses: A Modern Epic of Greed and Betrayal at America's Two Largest Newspaper Companies (Hardcover)
As time goes by, some books seem to loom larger. Such is the case with Bryan Gruley's Paper Losses. As media companies continue to combine with frightening speed, it's unlikely that the nation will ever see another crosstown newspaper rivalry as vital and potent as Detroit's. Gruley's book stands tall as an epic of lost opportunity for all Americans.
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