It's News to Me: The Making and Unmaking of an Editor

By Edward Kosner

Book Overview

Edward Kosner's stunning, articulate journalism memoir ranks with the tradition of important tell-alls like Cass Canfield, Howell Raines, and Ben Bradlee. Kosner, whiz-kid star at Newsweek, editor of New York Magazine, editor of the New York Daily News, editor of Esquire, gives us the inside scoop on Kay Graham, Mort Zuckerman, Tina Brown, and many others -- and provides as well a primer for aspiring and veteran journalists alike. No one, before or since, has achieved the kind of influence in the world of New York's print media that Kosner did; here is an intimate description of the experiences that built one of the industry's most talented editors. From his beginnings in World War II-era Washington Heights, to his days on college publications, to his position at the helm of several of New York's leading news publications, Kosner provides a clear narrative of his life's course, peppering the way with his singular perspective and poignant memories, offering irresistible, well-written fodder for media aficionados.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560259078
• ISBN13: 9781560259077
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 1.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A must read for journalists

Should be mandatory reading for all editors and wannabe editors. Lots of name-dropping fluff, but plenty of newsroom insider tips and tricks.

The molding of an editor

Mr Kosner details his rise to become an editor at several journalist institutions. The best part of this book is how he describes the non-glorifying and very anti-climatic process of being fired. it is never easy ona person and this author described that perfectly. The ending of this book which lists several traits that should define a person are an extra bonus with this book. It was smart to include in this book.

Outstanding Memoir by An Journalistic Insider

The name of Edward Kosner will doubtless fail to ring a bell in the minds of most Americans. This is because Kosner was a journalistic insider in the Eastern Establishment who preferred to work behind the scenes and also did not write much in the line of columns or any other work that bore his name. Edward Kosner held top editorial positions at such institutions as Esquire, New York, Newsweek and the New York Daily News. Kosner was in an excellent position to witness the ongoing decline of newspapers and newsmagazines as well as the rise of the Internet as a news source. Among other things, Kosner predicts that newspapers will increasingly become marginalized as a mass medium and come to have only a limited audience in what he calls the "educated elite." Kosner's book is rich in insight into the state of journalism today and about the practitioners of modern journalism. This is a most important book and as such is warmly recommended.

Enjoyable and Well Written...

I enjoyed the sections on the youth and family of the author as well as those chapters following his career. The book is extremely well written. I bought it as a gift for my journalist son and decided to read it first and was pleasantly surprised that I liked it so much.