Strategic Newspaper Management

Hey pal: You'll never get a better insight into the comings and goings of the newspaper business than you will from this book. Based on real life examples, the author, a former VP for the AP, details how the industry works and why it works. As one example on competition, the author turns to the bloody battle waged between the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, explaining how and why -- yankees be damned -- the AJC came out on top. Definitely worth the time of anyone -- student, teacher or professional -- who wants to know more about newspaper management.

I would like to echo the comments by "reader from Atlanta," although I am deducting a point for a lack of illustrations and color. The book goes beyond the standard facts and instruction of a quality text book and spins a complex and emotional yarn which takes the reader on an eventful journey. With newspaper strategy as its backdrop, the book becomes a picaresque jaunt not unlike the work of Daniel Dafoe (Moll Flanders, especially). Whether it is the sleaze of a Rupert Murdoch or the sensible grayness of the New York Times, the cast of colorful participants never fails to entertain and enlighten. One of the the book's many key battle scenes, the depiction of the sordid affair in Gwinnett county between media juggernauts the New York Times, Co. and Cox Newspaper's Atlanta-Journal Constitution recalls both Braveheart and The Civil War. In this quest for the demographically attractive Gwinnett County readers, Fink provides vivid details into why this is much more than just a fight for market share. It is a metaphor for life itself. Keep in mind that Fink does not let his creative pen overshadow practical knowledge for the potential media professional. Ch. 12 - Press Law and You - is a tour de force on how legal concerns are closely tied to the daily practices of all print media ventures. It is this dichotomy - wild, literary brilliance and down and dirty pragmatism - which makes Strategic Newspaper Management required reading.

Gosh, this was the most remarkable pageturner I ever read. Fink's way with words continues to astound me to this day, long after I've read a number of his bestsellers. At the end (and I won't reveal the surprise, lest others have yet to read it), your eyes will be filled with tears and your mind so filled with disbelief that you'll start reading it all over again. This book changed my life.