Jill Abramson

presents

Merchants of Truth:
The Business of News and the Fight for Facts

This event includes a book signing

Date

Feb
19
Tuesday
February 19, 2019
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome renowned journalist JILL ABRAMSON—Harvard University senior lecturer and former executive editor of the New York Times—for a discussion of her latest book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts.

About Merchants of Truth

Merchants of Truth is the groundbreaking and gripping story of the precarious state of the news business told by one of our most eminent journalists.

Jill Abramson follows four companies: The New York Times, The Washington PostBuzzFeed, and VICE Media over a decade of disruption and radical adjustment. The new digital reality nearly kills two venerable newspapers with an aging readership while creating two media behemoths with a ballooning and fickle audience of millennials. We get to know the defenders of the legacy presses as well as the outsized characters who are creating the new speed-driven media competitors. The players include Jeff Bezos and Marty Baron (The Washington Post), Arthur Sulzberger and Dean Baquet (The New York Times), Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), and Shane Smith (VICE) as well as their reporters and anxious readers.

Merchants of Truth raises crucial questions that concern the well-being of our society. We are facing a crisis in trust that threatens the free press. Abramson’s book points us to the future.

Praise

“In the tradition of David Halberstam’s The Powers That Be, Jill Abramson has woven amazing reporting with sharp insights and personal experiences to capture a momentous transformation in journalism. Filled with colorful inside stories, this book is essential for anyone who wants to understand today’s media and how it is affecting our society.” —Walter Isaacson, New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci

"Abramson’s shrewd, stylishly written account includes colorful characters—VICE’s culture of sexual harassment featured a naked office walkabout by founder Shane Smith—and savvy portraits of newsroom dynamics. The result is one of the best takes yet on journalism’s changing fortunes." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Better than many in her business, Abramson understands the roiling craft of journalism from the inside . . . A highly readable combination of significant topic, deep reporting, endlessly fascinating anecdotes, and vivid writing." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Jill Abramson
Jill Abramson

Jill Abramson

Jill Abramson held senior editorial positions at The New York Times, being the first woman to serve as Washington bureau chief, managing editor, and executive editor. She spent nine years at The Wall Street Journal. She is the author of Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts, and co-author of Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, a National Book Award finalist. A senior lecturer at Harvard University, she writes a column about U.S. politics for The Guardian.

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes

As you exit the station, reverse your direction and walk east along Mass. Ave. in front of the Cambridge Savings Bank. Cross Dunster St. and proceed along Mass. Ave for three more blocks. You will pass Au Bon Pain, JP Licks, and TD Bank. Harvard Book Store is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Plympton St.

Unable to attend a Harvard Book Store author event? You can still pre-order a signed book by one of our visiting authors.

While we can't guarantee fulfillment of a signed book pre-order, our authors are almost always able to sign extra books to fulfill such orders.

Ordering a signed book on harvard.com:

  • Add the book to your shopping cart and then click Checkout.
  • Specify in Order Comments that you want a signed copy of the book.
  • Please note: online orders for signed copies must be placed at least one business day before the event. If you are ordering the day of, please call us instead.

Ordering a signed book by phone:

  • Call us at (617) 661-1515 and one of our booksellers will take your order. Specify you'd like a signed copy.
  • If you are requesting a personalized inscription and/or requesting your book be shipped, we'll need to take down credit card information. If you are planning to pick up the signed book in the store, you can pay on pick-up.

FAQ:

Can I request a personalized inscription?
Unless otherwise noted, we are happy to take requests for the author to sign your book to a specific person, but we can't guarantee it. If you do get a personalized inscription, the book will be non-returnable. We will require credit card information when you place the order.

Do signed books cost more?
There is no extra fee for a signed book!

Do I have to pick it up in the store, or can you deliver my signed book?
As with all web or phone orders, we can hold your book for in-store pickup, or ship it anywhere in the country.

I am planning to attend an author event. Do I need to pre-order a book?
No need. We'll be selling books at the event, and nearly all of our events include a signing at the end of the talk.

More questions? Give us a call!

Co-Sponsored by Mass Humanities

Mass Humanities

 

Mass Humanities creates opportunities for the people of Massachusetts to transform their lives and build a more equitable Commonwealth through the humanities. Learn more at masshumanities.org.

Purchase the Book
Featured event books will be for sale at the event. Thank you for supporting this author series with your purchases.
General Info
(617) 661-1515
info@harvard.com

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