5/14/11

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times

It's a brand new media world out there and The Gray Lady of New York City is sitting right in the middle of it! How does a paper and ink printed product like the New York Times compete with speed-of-light communications? How do boots-on-the-ground reporters compete with WikiPedia hackers? How does a New York based company compete with ubiquitous blogs, Twitter, Facebook, WikiLeaks and other news aggregating web- sites?

A larger question is, how will many of these acorns survive without the oak? Many news organizations either quote The Times, are based on information from The Times, or feature articles that respond to The Times; they don't initiate, as much as they reflect.

As advertising revenues fall and major newspapers declare bankruptcy all over the country, The New York Times granted unprecedented access to camera crews to document a year in the life...of an institution that will never be the same. The primary spokesman is a former drug addict and felon, now a single parent and successful reporter who has worked for The Times for decades. David Carr's comments are wry, pithy and quotable.

This 2011 Seattle International Film Festival documentary was engrossing and thought provoking as we witness a painful reduction in force. However, there are plenty of laughs and more than a few surprises. We get to observe a major quandary as they discover TV journalists have created fictitious "news" and we see them debate what The Times should do about it. I enjoyed this one very much.
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Here is a preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2736758041/
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