America's Last Great Newspaper War : The Death of Print in a Two-Tabloid Town

Recounts the story of America’s last great newspaper war between the New York __Daily News__ and the __New York Post__, as both papers’ long rivalry turned existential amid the rise of digital news. The story is told through the eyes of the reporters, or “runners,” and photographers who fought the war on the ground in cities across America. This book captures an important moment in history. One in five local U.S. newspapers has shuttered since 2004; a total of 1,800 newspapers. This book describes, in a dramatic and human fashion, how the “death of print journalism” played out in one city in America, as both the News and Post battled to survive. The prose will be a joy for anyone who loves a well-crafted phrase-turn. It is constructed to evoke Chandler's Marlowe books; to endure and, if lost, to one day be rediscovered. The author is a tabloid rewrite man and he slaved over it for a decade.This book captures an important moment in history. One in five local U.S. newspapers has shuttered since 2004; a total of 1,800 newspapers. This book describes, in a dramatic and human fashion, how the "death of print journalism" played out in one city in America, as both the News and Post battled to survive.It's a teaching tool for journalists and aspirants. The book is filled with bits of "Runner's Tradecraft," intended to instruct on best-and-worst practices and portray what journalists actually do and will encounter in the field; and how to best get the story.This book vividly describes what happens when people are faced with a choice between professional success/survival and acting in an ethical way consistent with what they believe is right. Everyone - runners and photographers - had to make that choice on a near-daily basis-and there were consequences.People read newspapers and consume media, daily, but they don't really have an idea how it is collected and what it takes to obtain and produce these stories. This book reveals how the sausage is made-and people will be shocked.It's a great, great story, a rip-roaring yarn filled with gonzo, Cannery-Row-like personalities, high-speed car chases with famous people (Hillary Clinton/O.J. Simpson); sneaking into hospitals; infiltrating a Mafia Don's crypt; fierce bidding wars; last-minute flights, months-long stakeouts, arcane codes and rituals and plenty of skullduggery on both sides.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK BYTHE NEW YORK POST A from-the-trenches view of New York Daily News and New York Post runners and photographers as they stop at nothing to break the story and squash their tabloid arch-rivals. When author Mike Jaccarino was offered a job at the Daily News in 2006, he was asked a single question: "Kid, what are you going to do to help us beat thePost?" That was the year things went sideways at the News, when theNew York Post surpassed its nemesis in circulation for the first time in the history of both papers. Tasked with one job-crush thePost-Jaccarino here provides the behind-the-scenes story of how the runners and shooters on both sides would do anything and everything to get the scoop before their opponents. The New York Daily News and the New York Post have long been the Hatfields and McCoys of American media: two warring tabloids in a town big enough for only one of them. As digital news rendered print journalism obsolete, the fight to survive in NYC became an epic, Darwinian battle. In America's Last Great Newspaper War, Jaccarino exposes the untold story of this tabloid death match of such ferocity and obsession its like has not occurred since Pulitzer- Hearst. Told through the eyes of hungry "runners" (field reporters) and "shooters" (photographers) who would employ phony police lights to overcome traffic, Mike Jaccarino's memoir unmasks the do-whatever-it-takes era of reporting-where the ends justified the means and nothing was off-limits. His no-holds-barred account describes sneaking into hospitals, months-long stakeouts, infiltrating John Gotti's crypt, bidding wars for scoops, high-speed car chases with Hillary Clinton, O.J. Simpson, and the baby mama of a philandering congressman-all to get that coveted front-page story. Today, few runners and shooters remain on the street. Their age and exploits are as bygone as theNews-Post war and American newspapers, generally. Where armies once battled, often no one is covering the story at all. Funding for this book was provided by: Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK BY THE NEW YORK POSTALSO AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOBOOKA from-the-trenches view of New York Daily News and New York Post runners and photographers as they stop at nothing to break the story and squash their tabloid arch-rivals.When author Mike Jaccarino was offered a job at the Daily News in 2006, he was asked a single question: "Kid, what are you going to do to help us beat the Post?" That was the year things went sideways at the News, when the New York Post surpassed its nemesis in circulation for the first time in the history of both papers. Tasked with one job--crush the Post--Jaccarino here provides the behind-the-scenes story of how the runners and shooters on both sides would do anything and everything to get the scoop before their opponents.The New York Daily News and the New York Post have long been the Hatfields and McCoys of American media: two warring tabloids in a town big enough for only one of them. As digital news rendered print journalism obsolete, the fight to survive in NYC became an epic, Darwinian battle. In America's Last Great Newspaper War, Jaccarino exposes the untold story of this tabloid death match of such ferocity and obsession its like has not occurred since Pulitzer- Hearst.Told through the eyes of hungry "runners" (field reporters) and "shooters" (photographers) who would employ phony police lights to overcome traffic, Mike Jaccarino's memoir unmasks the do-whatever-it-takes era of reporting--where the ends justified the means and nothing was off-limits. His no-holds-barred account describes sneaking into hospitals, months-long stakeouts, infiltrating John Gotti's crypt, bidding wars for scoops, high-speed car chases with Hillary Clinton, O.J. Simpson, and the baby mama of a philandering congressman--all to get that coveted front-page story.Today, few runners and shooters remain on the street. Their age and exploits are as bygone as the News-Post war and American newspapers, generally. Where armies once battled, often no one is covering the story at all.Funding for this book was provided by: Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund