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"They're closing in on me, Dick, and I'm afraid they will get me," said Frank Wood, publisher of the Green Bay News-Chronicle, in a telephone call to his friend and colleague, Richard McCord. Drained of cash and spirit, Wood cannot hold out a lot longer against a devouring giant, the Gannett Company. As editor and publisher of the nationally distinguished weekly Santa Fe Reporter, McCord had successfully fended off Gannett's "Operation Demolition" when it moved into town. Now Wood was seeking the assistance of any survivor.
Startling case histories of the dubious tactics practiced by Gannett, unsparing insights into the newspaper industry, and harsh conclusions all get together in the dramatic story of these two men's efforts to save lots of the small Green Bay daily from being obliterated at the hands of the nation's major newspaper chain. Their success is a metaphor for one of the oldest triumphs of the world: that of David over Goliath.
"McCord has done something marvelous with this. He's taken a deeply disturbing nationwide trend and wear it a little midwestern stage with real characters. The Chain Gang's message must be heard by as much Americans as read newspapers. Already Gannett's monopoly tactics have impoverished communities across the country. McCord is one man fighting back, coolly, rationally, creatively, and stubbornly. Let's join him."—Michael Shnayerson, Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair
"More graphically than almost any other available record of the era, the Gannett piracy is what has happened to this country, tolled where in fact the price is actually paid, in the lives of communities and folks."—Roger Morris, winner of the Investigative Reporters and Editors' National Award for Distinguished Investigative Journalism
"Richard McCord's The Chain Gang takes the losing battle for the soul of American newspapers from the euphoric accounts on financial pages showing what corporate news chains can mean in human terms to the people and the vitality of the victimized cities and towns. His is a unique account of the power and depredations of the Gannett Chain under its glib empire builder, Allen Neuharth. It goes behind the facade of slick pr and financial killings for investors showing what happens whenever a ruthless and ambitious wheeler-dealer gets control of our news."—Ben H. Bagdikian, media critic and Pulitzer Prize winner
