Merchants of Truth

Whoever controls the news, controls the truth - and the battle is on. In The Merchants of Truth, the first female editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson tells the in-the-room story of the men and women who are locked in a fight for survival - and control of what every one of us thinks and believes. Journalism is the last bastion of democracy. By revealing the truth, it holds the powerful to account. As editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson had the most powerful job in newspaper journalism - and the scoop on the biggest story of all: the battle royale between the venerable, august icons of print media, renowned for their deep reporting and rigid principles, and the radical upstarts, such as VICE and Buzzfeed, whose head-turning free content was decimating their readership and bringing them to their knees. In telling the story of this fight to the death and bringing us face-to-face with its ferociously committed protagonists on both sides, Abramson exposes the consequences of this media revolution for the factual bedrock of our society and the intimidating challenges we now face. She shows that good journalism is hard, and the cost of news is high. Now, we are all paying the price.