We are old school newspaper people. Before the 1970s, newspapers were packed with local information and long stories. We still think that’s the future of the newspaper; it has to be about giving people what is best about a newspaper.

If there are some who dare to actually see a future in newspapers, I suggest that these are a few of the books that are essential reading.

1. The Hard Way by Alexander Brooke. This is the tale of one man and the York Coast County Star in Maine and how he grew a small paper, only to sell it and see it ruined by the likes of a new generation that would ruin the industry in a decade.
2. The Story of the New York Times by Meyer Berger. A plodding history about how the Times became great, dates from about 1951.
3. The Great American Newspaper: The Rise and Fall of the Village Voice. by Kevin McAuliffe. This is how Ed Fancher and crew built the greatest, and original, alt-weekly.
4. Handling Newspaper Type and My Paper Chase, both by Harold Evans. I haven’t read Paper Chase, but I am sure it will be useful and instructive.
5. Paper Tigers by Nicholas Coleridge. This tells the story of the newspaper owners of the late 1990s, the generation that raped the industry and drove it into the ground. Most interesting; the profile of Conrad Black of Hollinger.
6. The Astonishing Mr. Scripps by Vance Trimble. How E. W. Scripps built his empire.