Books and Projects by James O’Shea
“The Deal from Hell is chockablock with examples of what happens when bean counters take over newspapers … a strong, significant book.” —New York Times
“The star-crossed merger is the right newspaper decline story to tell, and Mr. O’Shea is arguably the eyewitness most qualified for the task.” —Wall Street Journal
“When you read this book it literally explodes in your mind. It reads more like a thriller than a book about business. Dangerous Company will have a real impact on the way we work. Get this book and read it, because you will be hearing parts of it quoted in the corporate halls in years to come.” —Jack Stack, author, The Great Game of Business
“Like Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, James O’Shea’s The Daisy Chain is more than a case study of an industry; it is a chronicle of financial wilding, a manifesto for political reform.” —Congressman Jim Leach, House Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs
Chicago News Cooperative
The Chicago News Cooperative (CNC) was one of the first news non-profits to appear on a journalistic landscape marred by the declining fortunes of the for-profit newspaper industry. In an unprecedented deal, the CNC formed an alliance with the New York Times to give Times’ readers exclusive Chicago news twice per week in the Midwest edition of the Times." They are doing bang-up journalism, which is what we hoped for," says Jim Schachter, the New York Times' editor for digital initiatives and point person working with the CNC. The Times conducted focus groups with loyal readers in the Chicago area and found that, although new, the CNC already had established strong name recognition. "They were excited that we were doing more about Chicago and that we found local Chicago journalists with well-established names to work on it," Schachter said. The CNC was terminated in 2012 when its’ board members acquired the Chicago Sun-Times.
David Greising, the deputy editor of the upstart Chicago News Cooperative, and Sharene Shariatzadeh, the business development director, hung the company's sign as the editor, James E. O'Shea, right, planned how to compete with The Chicago Tribune.Credit...Sally Ryan for The New York Times
CityXones App
CityXones was an interactive, local newspaper and information app created in 2018 by James O’Shea, Bill Parker, and Marisa Bryce.
The news media is in the middle of a revolution. Old certainties have been shoved aside by new entities such as WikiLeaks and Gawker, Politico and the Huffington Post. But where, in all this digital innovation, is the future of great journalism? Is there a difference between an opinion column and a blog, a reporter and a social networker? Who curates the news, or should it be streamed unimpeded by editorial influence?
Expanding on Andrew Rossi's "riveting" film (Slate), David Folkenflik has convened some of the smartest media savants to talk about the present and the future of news. Behind all the debate is the presence of the New York Times, and the inside story of its attempt to navigate the new world, embracing the immediacy of the web without straying from a commitment to accurate reporting and analysis that provides the paper with its own definition of what it is there to showcase: all the news that's fit to print.