This in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the modern newsroom reveals the ways in which the customer-driven approach to news and the "USA Todayization" of newspapers threaten the values that have guided generations of American journalists.

Underwood takes readers on a tour of the large corporations that dominate today's media, uncovering how demands for high-profit, "reader-friendly" journalism are handcuffing journalists and turning the news into just another product in the great American sellathon. His lucid discussion draws from more than one hundred interviews with newspaper editors, reporters, and consultants, as well as from a three-year management policy survey administered to 429 newsroom employees at twelve daily newspapers.

Writing with anger but with a deep affection for the trade, he examines the growing economic pressures within the industry, the roots of the managerial revolution, and the impact of marketplace journalism on the operation of the newsroom and employee morale.