OLD Media Moves

The rush to write a Madoff book

December 19, 2008

Jeffrey Trachtenberg of The Wall Street Journal writes Friday about the business journalists who are already working on books about disgraced hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff.

Trachtenberg writes, “Only a week after Mr. Madoff was arrested by federal agents on a charge of securities fraud, News Corp.‘s HarperCollins Publishers said it has acquired world rights to a book about Mr. Madoff to be written by journalist Andrew Kirtzman. The HarperCollins book, which doesn’t yet have a title, is to be published in 2010.

“News Corp. also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

“Separately, Bertelsmann AG’s Random House imprint said late Thursday that it, too, is acquiring the rights to a Madoff book. The so-far untitled work by investigative reporter Richard Behar is to be published in 2010.

“‘This is a story that isn’t going away,’ said Claire Wachtel, an executive editor at the Harper imprint who acquired Mr. Kirtzman’s book. ‘It’s the human element that makes it so interesting.'”

Read more here.

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