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.'”
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