BOOKS BY KEN AULETTA

 

 
 

NAMED ONE OF THE “Best of 2022” BY The NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, ESQUIRE

Hollywood Ending

HARVEY WEINSTEIN AND THE CULTURE OF SILENCE

A vivid biography of Harvey Weinstein—how he rose to become a dominant figure in the film world, how he used that position to feed his monstrous sexual appetites, and how it all came crashing down, from the author who has covered the Hollywood and media power game for The New Yorker for three decades.

Read an excerpt in The New Yorker

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PRAISE for HOLLYWOOD ENDING

Named as one of the Best Books of 2022 — The New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire

“Auletta’s deep familiarity with the film industry serves him well in depicting the making, marketing, and reception of the Weinsteins’ movies. Aiming to portray Weinstein as “more than a monster,” the author offers ample evidence that he is a sociopath. An authoritative, sordid biography.” —Kirkus

“A thoughtful, probing book . . . nuanced in ways missing from the screaming-headline revelations of the story as it unfolded . . . the insoluble riddle of how so much good and evil could reside in one man is the abiding mystery that gives this book its fascination. . . . If he had done nothing else, Ken Auletta deserves great credit for forcing his readers to confront the fact that evil does not thrive in a vacuum and that Harvey Weinstein, as bad as he was, had far too much help along the way.” —The Daily Beast
 
“Legendary media reporter Auletta was on to Weinstein as a violent bully and abuser in 2002, calling the producer a ‘self-absorbed narcissist’ in a profile for The New Yorker . . . Auletta’s new book has marinated over the years and benefits from 200 interviews to paint a fuller and darker picture of Weinstein . . . Among one of America’s keenest observers of power, from Wall Street to Hollywood.” —The National Book Review

“Excellent . . . The world turned a blind eye, Auletta explains, in large part because of the perception that Weinstein’s contributions to the industry outweighed his transgressions.” Bloomberg, The 10 Best Books for Your Summer Reading List

“Longtime New Yorker media reporter Auletta delivers a compelling, assiduously reported, full-formed biography of Weinstein, from his Queens youth all the way to his trial, conviction, and 2020 sentencing . . . A definitive, unblinking account of a tragic chapter in American movie history.” Booklist (starred review)

 

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Frenemies
The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else)

An intimate and profound reckoning with the changes buffeting the up to $2 trillion global advertising and marketing business from the perspective of its most powerful players, by the bestselling author of Googled

Advertising and marketing touches on every corner of our lives, and is the invisible fuel powering almost all media. Complain about it though we might, without it the world would be a darker place. And of all the industries wracked by change in the digital age, few have been turned on its head as dramatically as this one has. We are a long way from the days of Don Draper; as Mad Men is turned into Math Men (and women—though too few), as an instinctual art is transformed into a science, the old lions and their kingdoms are feeling real fear, however bravely they might roar. 


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GOOGLED : THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT

Bestselling author Ken Auletta takes readers for a ride on the Google wave, telling the story of how it formed and crashed into traditional media businesses —from newspapers to books, to television, to movies, to telephones, to advertising, to Microsoft. With unprecedented access to Google's founders and executives, as well as to those in media who are struggling to keep their heads above water, Auletta reveals how the industry is being disrupted and redefined.

Thanks to the unusual degree of access that the company granted the author — and thanks to his sharp eye — ‘Googled’ presents interesting new details.
- The Wall Street Journal


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BACKSTORY : INSIDE THE BUSINESS OF NEWS

An insider's journey inside the world of journalism offers a perceptive glimpse at its most important institutions and individuals in a collection of essays, profiles, and articles that addresses the struggle between ideals and the business of news, the moral ambiguity of the "media personality" phenomenon, media consolidation, the impact of the Internet, and other key topics.

Auletta is the James Bond of the media world... The result: stories that give readers an intimate feel for the drama within the institutions that set the national news agenda.
- Business Week


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MEDIA MAN : TED TURNER’S IMPROBABLE EMPIRE

Ted Turner revolutionized television. Foreseeing cable's potential in its infancy, he parlayed a tiny station in Atlanta into a national superstation, invented CNN, and transformed sports teams and the MGM film library into lucrative programming. Ken Auletta, the most respected media journalist in America, enjoyed unparalleled access to the outspoken and defiant Turner in writing this book, capturing the visionary businessman as he built―and lost―his improbable empire.

A nuanced and engaging portrait of an immensely complicated man.
- Washington Post Book World