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'Googled' Auletta ponders a biography
Commentary: 'Googled' author seeks a writing challenge
By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:01 AM ET Nov 6, 2009
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- I'll get this out of the way right now: Ken Auletta is the best media writer around. In fact, nobody really comes close.
Auletta, the media chronicler for the New Yorker, is the author of the terrific new book "Googled." The Wall Street Journal said in its review Thursday that Auletta describes comprehensively the process from start-up to juggernaut. Read review.
"As expected, we hear about the young Rollerblading employees at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, with its massage rooms, pool tables and free meals," the review pointed out. "But thanks to the unusual degree of access that the company granted the author -- and thanks to his sharp eye -'Googled' also presents interesting new details." (The Journal, like MarketWatch, is a unit of News Corp.)
New challenge
Now that he has finished his 2 1/2 year quest to unravel the mystery of Google's GOOG remarkable success, he is looking for a new writing challenge. Auletta, specifically, wants to write a biography at some point.
Auletta told me Thursday over breakfast in New York, he hasn't yet settled on a biography subject.
Fortunately, I have some ideas.
I'd like to see Auletta, who combines a sense of curiosity with a ferocious work ethic, tackle a biography of U2 front man and activist Bono or media mogul-turned-New York-Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Apple Inc. AAPL visionary Steve Jobs, or the institution of the New York Times NYT, focusing on its beleaguered but always hopeful leader, Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
Auletta approached Jobs a few years ago with a request for access to him and Apple but the author couldn't get Jobs to cooperate fully.
Why those people? They all have fascinating stories to tell. They're all complex leaders who have made interesting choices in their work. Most crucial of all, each has accomplished a great deal and yet has much work to do to complete a career spent in the public arena.
Auletta, who loves to ponder big-picture questions, could pursue these notions: What is the end game for each of them? What drives them? Are they simply creations of the modern media? Or are they actually trying to improve society?
Auletta may or may not find these suggestions intriguing enough to warrant a commitment of two or three years. "A book is like a marriage," he said with a smile. "You had better be in love with the subject."
Auletta told me that a subject must present mysteries that he is eager to solve in the reporting process, and then explain to readers. "The best part is the reporting -- you're like a kid in a candy store, asking 'Columbo'-type questions. Writing is hard work, constantly making choices," such as "Do I have a narrative? Does this hold together? Where does (the story) begin? And end?"
'Googled'
For now, of course, Auletta remains blissfully fixated on all things Google.
Auletta, who conducted hundreds of interviews for the new book, hoped to explain above all, how the digital revolution is changing the world, especially the traditionally stodgy media industry.
Ambitious as ever, Auletta said, with a sense of urgency, "I want to tell the Google story and how traditional media companies are responding to the Google wave."
Auletta came to understand that perhaps "the secret sauce" was the fact that Google was being run by engineers. The "cold logic of engineers" in Silicon Valley seemed more efficient than the typical media executives whom Auletta usually encountered back East.
Auletta used that idea as a springboard of sorts to come to terms with an even larger issue: Does the skill of the Google founders serve the interests of newspapers?
The rise of Google prompted Auletta to tackle some key issues in journalism today: How have some of traditional media committed "suicide" by their apparent arrogance and unwillingness to embrace the new media until it was too late? Why didn't newspapers rush to create digital newsrooms?
"Newspapers should have jumped in and invested in digital (companies)," Auletta stressed. An operation such as Google's YouTube, which has caught fire by showing clips of TV shows and the occasional oddball viral video of the day, shouldn't have been viewed as a rival.
Instead, old-media executives should have seen it as a way to expand their business, Auletta said.
Sign of the Times
In a sense, Auletta's tale can also be viewed as a chronicle of the decline of the old media, specifically its ultimate symbol, the New York Times.
One of the great parlor games in media today is guessing the fate of the Times. I've gone on record as predicting that Bloomberg L.P. will eventually own the newspaper -- if anyone dares to spend billions of dollars on what has been dismissed as a dying newspaper company.
Auletta thinks the New York Times is so special he would be worried if someone else published it. He pondered the possibility of Bloomberg controlling the Times and said: "Bloomberg is good but it's not the New York Times."
Auletta said that despite the parent company's multitude of business challenges, "there will always be a buyer for the Times. I don't believe it is for sale or that the (Sulzberger) family wants to sell it. I do believe they might have to sell it one day."
Auletta has mixed feelings about Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s much-maligned stewardship, conceding, "He has done a brilliant job of keeping the family involved."
But Sulzberger "has not been an outstanding businessman," Auletta said, pointing to the company's questionable stock-buyback programs and involvement in television.
Next move
Auletta is in the midst of a hectic national media tour now.
These days, he is going through what he sheepishly confessed is a benign form of "separation anxiety," a condition which seizes most authors when they finish all-consuming projects. After they have finished the work and await the reviews -- an anxiety-ridden rite of passage -- the writers begin to worry what they'll do next.
"Oh my God," he said, "Google isn't in my life any more. After 2-1/2 years, I have to replace it with something. I'm thrilled to be back writing for the New Yorker -- I'm not in pain any more."
MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you want to know about Google?
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