The Paper

by Richard Kluger

Book Overview

Kluger's association with the Tribune makes him the natural historian of the paper. J. Anthony Lukas of the Boston Globe calls The Paper probably the best book ever written about an American newspaper... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394508777
• ISBN13: 9780394508771
• Release Date: September 1986
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 801 Pages
• Weight: 3.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Gold Standard for history of the Large Daily

A bit daunting in it's girth at over 800 pages, but well worth the journey. Persevere through the first chapters; it picks up steam as you enter and careen through the 20th century. Nearing the end of the book, you may experience some of the anguish Trib staffers and owner Jock Whitney felt as they watched the paper's demise. Kluger was the right person for the job in documenting the Trib's long and colorful life. His writing is entertaining, factual and witty...valuable to anyone "connected to" or "interested in" the profession. Poignant to read in 2009 as we witness the very disappearance of print media and the large "dailies".

What a newspaper!

This excellent book portrays the life and death of the New York Herald Tribune. The Herald began in 1835, founded by James Gordon Bennett, a leading paper of the yellow journalism school. The Tribune, a powerful and highly literate Republican paper, was founded by Horace Greeley in 1841. The two papers combined in 1924, and from that time on, until its demise in 1966, was one of the most important newspapers in the country; many would say the best paper ever. After WW II the paper got mired in financial straits; a failure to expand in the booming NY suburbs or to be technologically innovative kept circulation lowest among NY dailys in the 1950s. The union strike in 1964 was the paper's death knell. Kluger leaves few stones unturned in recounting the paper's history; I personally wanted more on the paper's last decade or two. But at 800 pages, I can't really complain. Monumental.

Outstanding journalism history.

A superlative and engrossing history of the New York Herald, the New York Tribune, the merged Herald - Tribune, and the rest of the New York newspaper scene from the mid 1800's to the 1960's. Fans of journalism history will love it. The author shows a slight liberal bias in his choice of adjectives but this is a minor blemish.