Before joining THE NEW YORKER, Mayer was for twelve years a reporter at the WALL STREET JOURNAL. In 1984, she became the Journal's first female White House correspondent. She was also a war correspondent and a foreign correspondent for the paper. Among other stories, she covered the bombing of the American barracks in Beruit, the Persian Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the final days of Communism in the Soviet Union. She was nominated twice by the JOURNAL for a Pulitzer Prize in the feature-writing category.

Before joining the JOURNAL, in 1982 Mayer worked as a metropolitan reporter for the WASHINGTON STAR. She began her career in journalism as a stringer for TIME magazine while still a student in college. She has also written for a number of other publications, including the WASHINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, and the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS. In addition to THE DARK SIDE, Mayer is the co-author of two other books. STRANGE JUSTICE, written with Jill Abramson, was a finalist for the 1994 National Book Award for nonfiction. Her first book, LANDSLIDE: THE UNMAKING OF THE PRESIDENT, 1984-1988, co-authored by Doyle McManus, was a best-selling account of the Reagan White House's involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.