Media Man: Ted Turner's Improbable Empire (Enterprise)

By Ken Auletta

Book Overview

America's top media journalist on the rise and fall of the industry's most colorful titan. Ted Turner, the "mouth from the South," revolutionized television. Grasping cable's potential in its infancy, Turner parlayed a tiny UHF station in Atlanta into a national cable superstation; invented the world's first 24-hour cable news channel, CNN; and transformed the MGM film library into lucrative cable networks. Although Turner sold his company to Time Warner and was eventually ousted, his influence is still pervasive in the business world through his philanthropy. Ken Auletta, whose New Yorker profile of Turner won a National Magazine Award for Best Profile in 2001, has written the first book-length retrospective on the volatile Turner and his roller-coaster career, and received the active cooperation of Turner himself, including fifteen hours of taped interviews. Media Man is a captivating view of a daring entrepreneur, a pioneering company, and the industry they helped create. 6 photographs. About the series : W. W. Norton and Atlas Books announce the launch of a dynamic new series: ENTERPRISE pairs distinguished writers with stories of the economic forces that have shaped the modern worldthe institutions, the entrepreneurs, the ideas. Enterprise introduces a new genrethe business book as literature.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393051684
• ISBN13: 9780393051681
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

The Rise and the Fall of the Turner Empire

How does a guy who sells billboards create a media empire? In 2001, author Ken Auletta won a National Magazine Award for his profile of media mogul Ted Turner in `The New Yorker'. In this book, he expands this profile, giving colorful detail about the remarkable life of the colorful, outspoken and complicated business cowboy. Auletta shows that Turner is shocking, abrasive and driven, but he rarely goes more deeply into Turner's motivations than to explain his rebellion against his father. The book chronicles Turner's revolutionary, meteoric creation of a cable empire, including the nation's first cable superstation, and the founding of CNN. It follows Turner as Time Inc., gobbles up his thriving company. Auletta takes a hard look at the personalities that engineered the formation of AOL Time Warner, then the world's biggest media company. Unfortunately, at this point, Auletta becomes preoccupied with the dealmakers and - like AOL TW - places Turner on the back burner. This is just a detour, however, from his compelling portrayal of a corporate superstar who ran his business from his gut. We recommend this fascinating read.

Method to his madness

This book provides a short but insightful biography of Ted Turner, the southern businessman known for his business acquisitions, media influence, sports franchises, and Jane Fonda. The book lays out the private and public life of Ted Turner from his birth to his recent donation of $10 billion US to the UN. Included in it are chapters on his schooling, his relationship with his father, his marriage to Jane Fonda, his entry into the media market culminating with CNN, and his later entry into progressive politics. The book is easy to read and filled with colorful insights into his life. Major financial and business ventures are covered in detail, with analysis of both legal and money aspects. The book is well referenced, drawing info from interviews with Mr. Turner, his friends and family, and secondary sources such as other books and newspaper articles. The book can be read in 1 day or less, and I recommend reading it.