In 1982, when Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain, introduced its newest offspring, USA Today insiders quickly nicknamed it “McPaper,” for aesthetic and economic reasons. The Gannett philosophy that the “only good market is a dead market” made editor and publisher McCord determined that his paper, the Sante Fe Reporter would not fall victim to this robber baron. He has produced a mind-boggling exposeof the chicanery of that unscrupulous empire. His exhaustive and often exhausting research documents the lengths to which Allen Neuharth and his organization would go to drive competition out of business. Fraud, price gouging, circulation scams, bribes, lies, and antitrust violations were as common as comics to an organization embodying America’s poorest values. When Frank Wood, editor of the beleaguered Green Bay News-Chronicle solicited McCord’s help to save that paper, McCord produced an award-winning exposethat countered Gannett’s philosophy with some of his own: Evil will flourish if good men remain silent. Aptly titled “It’s Now or Never,” the project did stave off the corporate wolves in Wood’s backyard, but McCord promises American newspapers that the McGreed pack still stalks. A mesmerizing look at the victimization of the American press. (Reviewed July 1996)— Patricia Hassler