While I know there has been a lot of controversy regarding this book, despite that, I found this a very intriguing read. I found interesting how the world of Journalism has changed and some have lost readership while others have grown from it. Very interesting book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

Three and a half stars for Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson. Setting aside the issues and allegations that have plagued this book since its pre-release, there was quite a bit of interesting material in this book. Chronicling the last 10 years or so of innovation and reconfiguration at four large media companies: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, and Vice, this book feels like an exhaustive account of how these companies dealt with disruption in the news industry.

In particular, I found the Buzzfeed chapters fascinating, and liked reading about the recent evolution of WaPo in the wake of its acquisition by billionaire Jeff Bezos. I’ve become more conscious of my intake of Internet news since reading this book - navigating through “clickbait” and “fake news” has never been so enlightening.

The book could have benefitted from shorter and more concise chapters, perhaps arranged around themes rather than the companies themselves. Some of the analyses of NYT and WaPo felt duplicative, especially since they largely faced the same issues in needing to adapt to the current state of internet and social media disruption. The material on Vice never felt like it came together for me - I struggled to develop a cohesive understanding of Vice as a media conglomerate. The book also falters a bit when Abrahmson makes herself part of the narrative (though, as managing editor of NYT during a significant period of the story, it’s probably a necessity).

Overall, the topic was interesting enough and littered with juicy enough backstory to keep me reading a lengthy and somewhat repetitive analysis.

MERCHANTS OF TRUTH by Jill Abramson is facing charges of plagiarism. Here are links to a couple of stories with more details and comments from the author:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/feb/07/jill-abramson-plagiarism-accusation-merchants-of-truth
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/8/18206892/jill-abramson-plagiarism-book-merchants-of-truth
As pointed out, this is highly ironic given that a book about journalistic ethics and "the fight for facts" may have sadly not upheld them.

Merchants of Truth is a disturbing read.

The subtitle, “The Business of News and the Fight for Facts”, succinctly describes the takeaway from this 545 page book. And the first sentence of the book’s blurb warns that it is not a simple read: “The definitive report on the disruption of the news media over the last decade.”

Respected and experienced journalist Jill Abramson tackled this complex issue through exploring four major media organizations in depth: BuzzFeed, VICE, New York Times and Washington Post, plus a single chapter on Facebook’s role in digital publishing.

The effect of that disruption is the collapse of local newspapers across the country with thousands of journalists out of work. The business model for printed newspapers relies on advertising to cover the costs of producing a daily paper. Two things destroyed the efficiency of that business model: advertising moved to the internet (think Craigslist) and the younger audience prefers the emotionally based news accounts offered by digital publishers like BuzzFeed, VICE and Facebook.

The BuzzFeed story starts with the background of Jonah Peretti, providing, in detail how it all began. The same approach is used for VICE, starting with the college graduation of Shane Smith.

The single chapter on Facebook is painfully informative, segues into a section on Breitbart and then identifies BuzzFeed’s Craig Silverman as the reporter who, in 2014, detected what he called fake news “defined as 1) an that item traded on the appearance of legitimate journalistic authority and 2) it did so for financial gain.”
According to Ms. Abramson the digital publishers continue to research how to most effectively manipulate readers’ emotions to their financial benefit.

The chapters on the New York Times and the Washington Post focus on how they managed their failing business model as digital overtook the news media and how the moves they made are working today. The print publishers walk a tight line between maintaining professional journalistic integrity while trying to improve their financial results using digital to distribute news.

Merchants of Truth is a hard read. While the writing is clear the information is simply overwhelming, and the content is dense.

Don’t let the almost excessive details provided by Ms. Abramson obscure the bottom line here: factual news is an endangered species.

I was several chapters into this book when the plagiarism allegations arose. I’m passing on this book until more info comes out.

I have been a New York Times subscriber, in Arizona, for over 25 years. I have been an on-and-off Washington Post subscriber during that time, mostly for work, now for personal interest. When I first began, the ability to learn what was happening outside of AZ, in any depth, was exciting beyond belief. With the advent of internet connectivity, these sources offer curated views of the wider world that I deeply value. So, my interest in how they got from the early 1990’s to here is both personal and pragmatic; in a time when “fake news” is a hotly over-used term, I treasure my long-term sources. Author Jill Abramson provides an insider’s view of a fascinating, disrupting process. Yes, I was there as customer and co-disruptor. But the backstory is vividly told and worth knowing. Would I behave differently now, knowing how precarious the free press really is, in our democracy? I now maintain my subscriptions with purpose because I realize my role in their continued health. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the transition of the press from paper to digital in the last 25 years. I received my copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this nonfiction book. This is a wonderful work of research addressing the digital revolution in media and its specific impacts on BuzzFeed, Vice, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Thank you to Jill Abramson for writing a meaningful and important book. It was fascinating to go behind the scenes at the start of the newer companies (and shocking) and somewhat heartbreaking to watch the struggles of the mainstream papers. I am a print and digital Washington Post subscriber and consider it my local paper and feel very grateful to read the paper every morning (and thanks Jeff Bezos for that). I feel like it makes me smarter. I am also a newly returned print and digital subscriber to The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, which I signed up for after a lapse, after the murder of the Capital staff last summer. I think reading this will make me more aware of the tactics that all these companies now use to grab your eyes and hopefully be a little smarter about my own engagement. Also, it gave me some sympathy for The Washington Post who I had seen “lowering” their standards (for example, clickbait-y type things online, sponsoring speaker events with advertisers) to compete in this new world; I understand better that they really have no choice. I highly recommend this book, although it can be a bit dry in parts, it’s very thorough and all important.