Media Man: Ted Turner's Improbable Empire

by Ken Auletta

"Auletta puts the most human of faces on Turner yet . . . [as] a tycoon who has lost his power." ― BusinessWeek Ted Turner revolutionized television. Foreseeing cable's potential in its infancy, he parlayed a tiny UHF 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 (named one of BusinessWeek's Top Ten Books of 2004), capturing the visionary businessman as he built―and lost―his improbable empire. 6 photographs

Genres: Business, Biography, History

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Ken Auletta has written Annals of Communications columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine since 1992. He is the author of eleven books, including five national bestsellers: Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way; Greed And Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of The House of Lehman; The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Super Highway; World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies; and Googled, The End of the World As We Know It, which was published in November of 2009.

Auletta has won numerous journalism honors. He has been chosen a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library, and one of the 20th Century's top 100 business journalists by a distinguished national panel of peers.

For two decades Auletta has been a national judge of the Livingston Awards for journalists under thirty-five. He has been a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival. He was a member of the Columbia Journalism School Task Force assembled by incoming college President Lee Bollinger to help reshape the curriculum. He has served as a Pulitzer Prize juror and a Trustee of the Nightingale-Bamford School. He was twice a Trustee of PEN, the international writers organization. He is a member of the New York Public Library's Emergency Committee for the Research Libraries, of the Author's Guild, PEN, and of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Auletta grew up on Coney Island in Brooklyn, where he attended public schools. He graduated with a B.S. from the State University College at Oswego, N.Y., and received an M.A. in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Reviews

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read biograpy on leadership for knowledge workers, managers, directors, C-levels, and entrepreneurs.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an in-depth profile but was interesting..best as a psychological profile

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Auletta always gives food for thought, and in business reporting here, he covers the end of Turner's storied career. There is almost too much insight into the ill-fated AOL Time Warner merger and demise, as it has been followed by ill-fated mergers with ATT, Discovery, and now, it seems, Skydance Paramount or whatever is happening, with whatever consequences. This is a short biography, expanded after a prize-winning New Yorker profile, but an incisive bit of reporting.
Auletta had great access to Ted - but before Ted finally completed Call Me Ted - and draws his own conclusions.
Here's to our man, Ted.
Hoping for more writing by Auletta, if possible at this stage.
Recommended.