Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson, former editor of The New York Times, is the gripping and definitive in-the-room account of the revolution that has swept the news industry over the last decade and reshaped our world.

Drawing on revelatory access, Abramson takes us behind the scenes at four media titans during the most volatile years in news history. Two are maverick upstarts: BuzzFeed, the brainchild of clickbait scientist Jonah Perretti, and VICE, led by Shane Smith. Their viral technology and disregard for the long-established standards of news journalism allow them to build billion-dollar businesses out of the millennial taste for entertainment.

The other two are among the world’s most venerable news institutions: The New York Times, owned and run for generations by the Sulzberger dynasty, and The Washington Post, also family-owned but soon to be bought by Jeff Bezos. Here Abramson reveals first-hand the seismic clashes that take place in the boardrooms and newsrooms as they are forced to choose between their cherished principles - objectivity and impartiality - and survival in a world where online advertising via Facebook and Google seems the only life-raft.

We are with the deal-making tycoons, reporters, and editors, the egomaniacs, provocateurs, as some surf and others drown in the breaking wave of change. And we watch as the survivors confront the cost of their success: scandal, fake news, and the election of President Trump.

Exposing the people and decisions that brought us to now, Merchants of Truth is a major book that breaks the news story of our times.