Mark Di Ionno Named Pulitzer Prize Finalist in News Commentary Category

Journalist Mark Di Ionno, whose novel The Last Newspaperman is about the roots of the media's obsession with crime and celebrity, was named a Pulitzer finalist in the news commentary category for his reporting in New Jersey's largest circulation newspaper, the Star-Ledger.

The Last Newspaperman, Di Ionno's first novel, is a story about the early days of tabloid journalism and how its immense popularity and profitability changed the direction of American media. Among the important questions Di Ionno asks in the book: Does the news business eventually alienate its audience by bludgeoning them with bad news?

"It is through the eyes of ruthless reporter Fred Haines that we see how modern media evolved from the remorseless, sensational journalism of the 1930s," said author Robin Gaby Fisher, herself a two-time Pulitzer finalist in feature writing. "With The Last Newspaperman, Mark Di Ionno has written the Great American newspaper novel."

Kirkus called The Last Newspaperman "a multifaceted debut novel about a journalist at odds with whether to educate or exploit his audience" and "a creative double-edged, historically inspired debut." Kirkus said, "Di Ionno's love of his home state of New Jersey is evident not only through the nonfiction he's published and his columns for the Star-Ledger, but in this first novel which impressively merges fact and fiction into a resonant story of morality and meaning."

Published by Medford, NJ-based Plexus Publishing, Inc., The Last Newspaperman was a finalist in the 2012 USA Best Book Awards in the General Fiction category and is available wherever books and ebooks are sold. For more information, visit http://www.plexuspublishing.com.