Together, William and the dwarves publish the ‘The Ankh-Morpork Times’, ushering in a new episode of the Industrial Revolution on Discworld. The birth of the fourth estate will make a lot of people ‘fret’ before they correct the spelling to ‘free’, giving us, the readers, one of the funniest adventures in the whole series while on the sidelines we get to debate the nature of truth, of the public as consumers of news and of power hungry little tyrants who dream of hitching this powerful force to their chariots.

Maybe, if you haven´t already chosen wisely and stopped consuming worthless news, this novel may give you the inspiration to think about why you should be willingly consuming any kind of left, right, economic, faith, etc. propaganda, when real hard facts, science, and the best worlds of all, fiction, can give joy and happiness. Meanwhile, a conspiracy is afoot in the city to depose the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. The wealthy and powerful (but anonymous) Committee to Unelect the Patrician hire Mr. Pin and Mr. William de Worde has somehow found himself editor of Ankh-Morpork’s first newspaper. Well, with a name like that… Tulip, a pair of villainous mercenaries from outside Ankh-Morpork known as the New Firm, to frame Vetinari with a staged embezzlement.William makes the mistake of advertising a reward for information leading to Wuffles' recovery, causing a frenzy among the local Ankh Morpork population. The protagonist does not exactly stand out. He’s probably one of the most “normal” protagonists you’ll find in the Discworld series. This does make him relatable though and through his eyes we also have the pleasure of seeing familiar and loved characters like Sam Vimes in a new light. So, mostly in the spirit of experiment, the two of them started building a book together. It was a lark, really – a side project with nothing hingeing on it except their own diversion. According to Terry they were “two guys who didn’t have anything to lose by having fun”. They were also two guys who operated at different ends of the day. Neil, at this point in his life, was largely allergic to the morning and would wake around lunchtime to flurries of crisp answerphone messages from his collaborator, which were generally variations on the theme of “Get up, you lazy bastard”. Apparently, this book is not classified as part of the City Watch sub-series because the City Watch characters have limited roles and are seen mainly from de Worde's perspective. Personally, I do classify it as City Watch. Where else would it go?

Listen, what's true to a lot of people is that they need the money for the rent by the end of the week. Look at Mr Ron and his friends. What's the truth mean to them? They live under a bridge.'

After the two return to the office, William learns of Lord Vetinari's reinstatement, and asks Sacharissa out. Afterwords, Mr. Tulip, reincarnated as a woodworm, comments on the "-ing good wood." For example, the dwarfs found out how to turn lead into gold by doing it the hard way. The difference between that and the easy way is that the hard way works.” Vetinari: "Oh, I do hope not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.”

At the same time, there is a plot against Lord Vetinari (again). And the conspirators are bringing in outside help (their first mistake). Look after the business and it will look after you. For all you have done, for all of the little things and all of the much bigger things and for the burying of the bodies … I thank you. William de Word doesn't want to live the way his family has for generations. Instead, he lives in Ankh-Morpork and got a job. While he pays his bills by writing letters to different people from different other places he comes across a few industrious (see what I did there? ;P) dwarves who have invented a rather advanced printing press. Thus the Ankh-Morpork Times is born. The problem is not that paper is now used to spread stories; the problem is that de Word believes in the truth and only reports about actual events. William just wants to get at THE TRUTH. Unfortunately, everyone else wants to get at William. And it's only the third edition...People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things…well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don’t want to know that a man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds" To accomplish this the New Firm find a shopkeeper who happens to be the spitting image of Vetinari and plan to use him as a double to make it seem as if Vetinari was trying to abscond from the city with a large amount of gold.