The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism in Bloomington, MN

Vivid and racy, a deep-dive into tabloids from their sixteenth-century beginnings to the
National Inquirer
and beyond.
The Newsmongers
unfolds the seedy history of tabloid journalism, from the first printed “Strange Newes” sheets of the sixteenth century to the sensationalism of today’s digital age. The narrative weaves from Regency gossip writers through New York’s “yellow journalism” battles to the “sex and sleaze”
Sun
of the 1970s; and from the Brexit-backing populism of the
Daily Mail
to the celebrity-obsessed
Mail Online
of the 2000s. Colorful figures such as Daniel Defoe, Lord Northcliffe, Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, Hugh Cudlipp, Rupert Murdoch, and Robert Maxwell are brought to vivid life.
From scandalous confessions to the Leveson Inquiry into the behavior of the British press, the book explores journalists’ unscrupulous methods, taking in phone hacking, privacy breaches, and bribery. And now, in the digital era,
shows how popular journalism has succumbed to so-called churnalism while a certain royal is seeking revenge on the tabloids today.