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Squires got his start in journalism as a reporter at the Nashville Tennessean in 1962, idealistic and convinced that the press had a unique mission of providing enlightenment and thereby improving democracy. He rose in his profession, serving as the editor of the Chicago Tribune from 1981 to 1989. In this lively, if sobering, memoir, he examines what he considers the steady decline in the quality of American print journalism in the past 30 years, attributing this to the growth of the ``ethically bankrupt'' concept that public service must be subsumed to cost control, return on assets and the courting of customers for advertisers. The situation, according to Squires, could worsen, but he sees some hope that the success of CNN in attracting large audiences and advertisers will have an impact on newspaper publishers and in the various charitable trusts set up by journalistic tycoons of the past. Media people should read this significant book. Author tour. (Feb.)