‘Page One’ Film Review: Doc Reveals New York Times’ Digital Dilemma
thewrap.comThis review of “Page One” was first published on January 24, 2011 after the film’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s kind of weird for me to watch “Page One,” a year-long chronicle of my former colleagues on the media desk of The New York Times and their struggle to produce journalism in this most challenging of times.The film, which starts around the time I started TheWrap in 2009 after having left the paper, is kind of like watching the conversation continue in the room after you’ve walked out.On the one hand, the film directed by Andrew Rossi does an able job of documenting the critically important role that the Times continues to play in news-gathering and dissemination – and why it can be so damn exciting to be there.On the other hand, the film gives a rather superficial assessment of what everybody really wants to know: Will the Times make it, or not?
Can the newspaper of record change fast enough, dramatically enough, to adjust to an upside-down business model?That he doesn’t answer.In 2008, the Times cut 100 jobs, borrowed $250 million and re-leased its building.
In 2009, it cut another 100 jobs.It is distinctly odd to hear someone say on film exactly what I felt at that tie: “The mood is funereal.” And, I might have added, not conducive to doing great journalism.The team on which he focuses includes heroically smart and dedicated journalists – David Carr, Brian Stelter, Bruce Headlam (proud to say I’ve worked with two of them, hope one day to work with the third) who make up much of the media desk.The challenge of the media desk is even more profound – to chronicle the potential demise of an industry of which you are a part.
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