Paper of Wreckage Format: Paperback

A “lively and sprawling” (The New York Times) oral history of the New York Post and the legendary tabloid’s cultural impact from the 1970s to today as recounted by the men and women who witnessed it firsthand.

By the 1970s, the country’s oldest continuously published newspaper had fallen on hard times, just like its nearly bankrupt hometown. When the New York Post was sold to a largely unknown Australian named Rupert Murdoch in 1976, staffers hoped it would be a new beginning for the paper.

Now, after the nearly fifty years Murdoch has owned the tabloid, American culture reflects what Murdoch first started in the 1970s: a celebrity-focused, noisy, one-sided media empire that reached its zenith with Fox News.

Drawing on extensive interviews with key players and in-depth research, this eye-opening, wildly entertaining oral history shows us how we got to this point. “It’s a juicy, gonzo slice of New York history” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) full of bad behavior, inflated egos, and a corporate culture that rewarded skirting the rules and breaking norms. But working there was never boring and now, you can discover the entire remarkable true story of America’s favorite tabloid newspaper.

Susan Mulcahy started at the New York Post as a copygirl while still in college. She worked at “Page Six” from 1978 to 1985, including three years as editor, before moving to Newsday to write a rival column. She has also written for The New Yorker and The New York Times.

Frank DiGiacomo worked as a “Page Six” freelancer in the late 1980s and became an editor of the column from 1991 to 1993. He has since worked as a writer and editor, covering media and the entertainment business, for Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, and Billboard, where he is currently an executive editor.