Tom Brokaw: `secret weapon';Ann Godoff turns `Greatest Generation' into community event with NBC anchor's help.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Advertising Age, March, 2000 by Evans, Don

Random house had many things working in its favor when it published Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation" in December 1998.

In Mr. Brokaw, anchor and managing editor of NBC-TV's "Nightly News With Tom Brokaw," Random House had a trusted and likable public figure with a household name and familiar face.

NBC's stake in the book profiling war veterans guaranteed prime time, mass-media publicity. The blockbuster Hollywood film "Saving Private Ryan" had recently resurrected interest in World War II nostalgia. It was Christmas, a boom time for book sales. And soon after the holidays, the book's documentary tie-in would air on NBC.

"Absolutely everything clicked," says Ann Godoff, Random House president, publisher and editor in chief. "Tom was the...

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