NEWSPAPERMAN

A memoir from a man who helped transform the Wall Street Journal from a local newspaper to a global operation.

When executive editor Bill Kerby and managing editor Buren McCormack hired the 21-year-old Phillips (China Behind the Mask, 1973, etc.) as a $40-per-week proofreader in 1947, daily circulation stood at 100,000. By 1991, when the author retired after serving as the publisher and CEO of Dow Jones & Co., the paper was the largest daily in the country with a circulation of around 2 million. Phillips provides insight into how one of the nation's most prominent newspapers evolved. The author was personally involved with much of the growth, after his transfer to London and then Germany to build the paper's operations in Europe, and he was integral to the development of the Wall Street Journal Asia and the paper’s partnership with Japan's Nikkei index. Under his leadership in the ’70s and ’80s, the paper became a technological leader through its deployment of satellite communications and its embrace of digitization. Throughout then book, Phillips looks at his part in shaping the Journal’s news and editorial coverage, and these sections provide insight into his highly successful methods. The author includes many anecdotes culled from his diaries, some very funny, which illustrate the variegated aspects of his life and the people who shared in it. In a short epilogue, Phillips discusses Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Journal and its incorporation into News Corp.

A well-rounded autobiography about the journalism industry and the people who shaped the news over the past 50 years.