By the 1970s, the New York Post had fallen on hard times, along with like the city. When the newspaper sold to a largely unknown Australian named Rupert Murdoch, staffers hoped it would be the start of a new golden age. But today media often reflects what began then, when the oldest newspaper in America was turned into a noisy tabloid.

In Paper of Wreckage: The Rogues, Renegades, Wiseguys, Wankers, and Relentless Reporters Who Redefined American Media, Susan Mulcahy and Frank DiGiacomo show us how we got here. The former Post writers and editors have compiled a jaw-dropping oral history of the paper and its cultural impact as recounted by the men and women who saw it firsthand. It’s a “rollicking tale” of bad behavior and inflated egos, operating by a corporate culture that rewarded skirting the rules and breaking norms: “A deeply fascinating — and considerably unsettling — look at the way American journalism has been transformed over the past five decades” (Booklist).

Mike Jaccarino, author of America's Last Great Newspaper War: The Death of Print in a Two-Tabloid Town, joins in conversation.