Hold Fast

The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website

By: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney

Narrated by: Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney

Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.

Over four decades, Michael Lacey and his business partner James Larkin built the largest, most influential company in alternative media—a colossal chain of muckraking newspapers that included The Village Voice, LA Weekly, Phoenix New Times, Dallas Observer, Miami New Times, and others. These alternative newspapers published writers who were fierce investigators, stylish storytellers, and astute cultural critics. These papers also published loads and loads of ads, including page after page of so-called “adult ads”—ambiguously written ads that appeared to offer illegal sexual services, but were nonetheless protected by the First Amendment.

As lucrative classified ads moved to the internet, cutting a hole in the money bag of newspapers everywhere, Lacey and Larkin founded Backpage.com, a classifieds website that would become synonymous with sex ads and scandal. The Justice Department alleges that Lacey and Larkin weren’t just newspapermen. They were, prosecutors say, the biggest pimps in the history of the world.

Reported, written, and hosted by three writers who once worked for Lacey’s newspaper chain—Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, and Michael Mooney—Hold Fast is a romp through the weird history and boundary-pushing culture of alternative newspapers; the controversies surrounding Backpage.com and the government investigations; and fraught frontiers of free speech in America.

©2024 Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, Michael Mooney (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.

Exceptional

As a native of Phoenix, I only had half of the story. A wonderful and informative listen!

Very engaging listen

Thank you to On The Media for highlighting this story and sending me to this story. Excellent listen!! I highly recommend!

Great Interesting Listen!

I had no idea about this. I was a reader of alternative papers in the early 2000’s and enjoyed reading the backpage, it was most interesting!

Very interesting

I had never heard of this incident. It was very interesting. Times changed and the internet changed everything. I enjoyed the listen and learned a lot. Well done!

Fascinating Insights

Other than the fake drama Audible introduces with their background music, this was an excellent listening experience. Learned a lot. My heart goes out to the sex workers who lost their voice and faced increased risk due to the moralizing jerks who shut down BackPage.

Blackbeard's diary basically

A well done capture of morally ambiguous pirates in the waning days of American journalism as we knew it. As someone privileged to ride along for a bit in the young writer churn& burn factory, I can attest Lacey and Co. were the best, the worst -- always a hell of a ride.

Raw and unfiltered

Absolutely love the storytelling. I would be listening and find myself absorbed in the story. Mike Lacey is what the story is…. Raw and unfiltered. The “no f*cks” given attitude really makes this a movie for your ears.

Before Backpage, there was journalism

Learning the history of gonzo journalism starting w/the 70s/80s, entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the reasons local alt-newspapers imploded is important for anyone who engages w/American society to understand. The story follows the typical newsworthy yet anticipated, 50-year culture cycle- beginning and ending on headlines reporting the latest method(s) to control women. Informative, educational story. Blissfully limited political content. Will be listening again for missed info.

An amazing, crazy ride. Highly recommend.

Stellar writing, stellar reporting, a larger-than-life cast of characters. Chronicles the rise and fall of alternative journalism through a variety of insane and fascinating stories while deftly explaining the legal clash of free speech and the Internet, the evolution of sex ads, and the fallout of it all. It’s surprising, it’ll make you think, it’ll crack you up, and it’ll stay with you long after Lacey’s final line.

A Fascinating & Ultimately Tragic Story

I loved this book. I knew nothing about the particulars of this story, so it was all news to me and very compelling stuff. I hated to see how things turned out in the end for Mike Lacey and his partner Jim Larkin though, and how the people most effected by the legal and political circus that ended backpage.com were sex workers whose lives were made even harder. But politicians doing anything but demonizing sex workers is highly unlikely because the poor girls make such easy targets, for liberals & conservatives both, but I digress. Great listen, one that I highly recommend 😄👍