Review of Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011) by Michael K — 23 Feb 2012

Having watched three of the five Oscar nominated documentaries for this year, I can probably say this one should have been on the list. A pretty interesting look inside the NY Times and how it is trying to adapt to modern forms of media.

I liked this for lots of reasons. Obviously, I consider myself a news guy, so it's great to get an unfiltered look at the most prestigious journalists in the country. And it was fairly unfiltered. Even more respect for the newsman who drops the F-bomb on frequent occasion. My kinda guy. Beyond that, it's just pretty interesting. As really the biggest newspaper in the world, it's a heck of a standard. What goes on your front page sets the tone of news world wide. Not many of us make decisions like that.

Tim Arango seems like quite a dude. He went off to Baghdad and vaguely resembles Richard Engle. Both guys you'd spill your guts to pretty much. David Carr is a fruit but he's a damn good writer and knows his stuff. Furthermore, he doesn't mince words. Pretty cool. Bill Keller looked to be a great executive editor, and the other guy that had some supervisory responsibilities also looked all right to work for.

Bottom line: the world, especially the US of A, needs the Times. Newsweek was a good magazine for years. They got bought out by the new media and it went downhill. The Huffington Post? I've seen it like twice. Newser or Gawker? Never been. In a great scene, on some debate show, the founder of newser is making his case why the Times are no longer needed. Carr pulls out a snapshot of the Newser front page: a collage of various photos and news stories. He had another sheet, this time with classic media cut out, leaving Newser with nothing. Sorry, it's not journalism to cut and paste the work of others. How ridiculous for these institutions to think they are better than the Times just because they make more money, often by regurgitating what the times has reported.

Finally, Carr and others says the Times will survive because it's not run by idiots. The example is the large Tribune group that claimed bankruptcy after the CEO, not a newsman, ran it into the ground. That was less to do with media than bad business. Newspapers are not exempt from bad management. (ha). But the Times is no ordinary newspaper. Expect it to survive and thrive, and that's a good thing for anyone who likes real news.