Paper of Wreckage

An Oral History of the New York Post, 1976-2024

By: Susan Mulcahy, Frank DiGiacomo

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Cassandra Campbell, Amanda Dolan, Kevin R. Free, Sean Patrick Hopkins, Leon Nixon, Fred Sanders, Eric Yang, Jade Wheeler

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.

Fun easy read with some surprises

I didn’t know much about about the post, its storied history or the newspaper business. Covers interesting changes, politically culturally and technologically.