The Attention Merchants
Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants traces 180 years of attention capture, from Benjamin Day's 1833 penny-press launch of the New York Sun, through the founding of modern advertising at NW Ayer, the rise of network radio and prime-time television, the Madison Avenue golden age, the cable-news split, the Google AdWords pivot, and the Facebook newsfeed. Wu, a Columbia law professor and former White House advisor, argues that every medium since the steam-press has been engineered to harvest and resell human attention to advertisers, and that each generation has rebelled against the latest capture before the next one quietly took its place. The book is the canonical business history of the attention economy.
What you might want to know about The Attention Merchants
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A Columbia law professor traces 180 years of attention capture, from the 1833 penny press to the Facebook newsfeed, in the canonical business history of the attention economy.
Both books address the modern attention economy, but from different angles. The Attention Merchants is more historical and Wu's argument is broader; Stolen Focus is more contemporary and personal. Many readers find them complementary.
The Attention Merchants was written by Tim Wu, published in 2016 by Vintage.
The Attention Merchants is 432 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Attention Merchants takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
The Attention Merchants is a standalone novel by Tim Wu, not part of a series.
The Attention Merchants is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.