Michael Wolff (journalist) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Michael Wolff
Wolff in 2024
Born	(1953-08-27) August 27, 1953 (age 71) Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.
Education	Columbia University (BA)
Notable works	Burn Rate Fire and Fury
Notable awards	National Magazine Award Mirror Award

Michael Wolff (born in 1953) is an American journalist and writer. He has written for many well-known publications like USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, and the UK edition of GQ. He has won two National Magazine Awards and a Mirror Award for his writing. Michael Wolff has also written seven books, including Burn Rate (1998), which was about his own internet company, and The Man Who Owns the News (2008), a book about Rupert Murdoch. He also helped start a news website called Newser.

In January 2018, Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was published. This book described events and people inside the White House during the time of U.S. President Donald Trump. The book quickly became a number-one bestseller on the New York Times list. It was the first of four books he wrote about Trump's time in power.

Early Life and School

Michael Wolff was born in 1953 in Paterson, New Jersey. His father, Lewis Allen Wolff, worked in advertising, and his mother, Marguerite Wolff, was a reporter for the Paterson Evening News.

Michael Wolff went to Montclair Academy, which is now called Montclair Kimberley Academy. He graduated from there in 1971. He then attended Vassar College before transferring to Columbia University, where he graduated in 1975. While he was a student at Columbia, he worked for The New York Times as a copy boy.

Wolff's Career as a Writer

Starting Out in the 1970s

Michael Wolff published his first magazine article in New York Times Magazine in 1974. It was a story about Angela Atwood, a neighbor of his family. Soon after, he left the Times and became a writer for New Times, a news magazine published every two weeks. Wolff's first book, White Kids (1979), was a collection of essays.

Work in the 1990s

In 1991, Wolff started his own company, Michael Wolff & Company, Inc. This company focused on creating books. Their first project was a book called Where We Stand, which also had a TV series on PBS. The company then created one of the first guides to the Internet in book form, called Net Guide. This book was published by Random House.

In 1998, Wolff published his book Burn Rate. This book shared details about his own internet startup company, Wolff New Media. The book became a bestseller. Some people who reviewed Burn Rate questioned the accuracy of certain parts of the book.

In August 1998, Wolff began writing a weekly column for New York magazine. Over the next six years, he wrote more than 300 columns.

Writing and Projects in the 2000s

Wolff at the 2008 Monaco Media Forum

Wolff was nominated for the National Magazine Award three times and won it twice. His second award was for columns he wrote from the Persian Gulf when the Iraq War began in 2003. His book, Autumn of the Moguls (2004), was based on many of his New York magazine columns. This book predicted some of the challenges that mainstream media would face later on.

In 2004, when New York magazine was put up for sale, Wolff tried to gather a group of investors to buy it. This group included New York Daily News publisher Mortimer Zuckerman and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. However, the magazine was eventually sold to someone else.

In 2005, Wolff became a media columnist for Vanity Fair. In 2007, he helped launch Newser, which is a website that gathers news from different sources.

That same year, he wrote a book about Rupert Murdoch called The Man Who Owns the News. This book was based on many hours of conversations with Murdoch and his business partners and family. The book was published in 2008.

Work in the 2010s

Wolff (left) with John Gapper (right) in 2012

Wolff won a Mirror Award in 2010 for his commentary work in Vanity Fair.

In 2010, Wolff became the editor of Adweek, a magazine about advertising. He left the role about a year later due to disagreements about the magazine's direction.

As of 2018, he was also a writer for the British GQ magazine.

Projects in the 2020s

In January 2024, Wolff took part in a documentary called Rewriting Trump. This documentary followed Wolff as he covered the 2024 election campaign while writing his book, All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America. The documentary was first shown in February 2025.

Books About Donald Trump

Fire and Fury (2018)

In early January 2018, Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was published. Before the book was officially released, parts of it were shared. These parts included descriptions of events and people inside the White House during the time of U.S. President Donald Trump.

News of the book's upcoming release and its descriptions of Trump led Trump and his lawyer to send a letter on January 4, 2018. This letter made legal threats and claimed that the book contained false information. However, this action actually made more people want to buy the book before it was even released. The book's publisher, Henry Holt and Company, responded by saying they would not apologize or take back anything in the book.

Before its release on January 5, the book quickly became number one on Amazon.com and the Apple iBooks Store. By January 8, over one million copies of the book had been sold or ordered.

Siege: Trump under Fire (2019)

Wolff's book, Siege: Trump Under Fire, was released on June 4, 2019. This book also covered events during Donald Trump's presidency.

Landslide (2021)

Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency was his third book about Trump. It was published in 2021.

All or Nothing (2025)

All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America is a book about the 2024 Trump presidential campaign. It was published in February 2025.

Personal Life

Michael Wolff was previously married to a lawyer named Alison Anthoine. They have three children together.

He is now married to Victoria Floethe, and they have two children. Their daughter, Louise Wolff, was born in 2015.

His daughter, Susanna Wolff, was the editor-in-chief of CollegeHumor.