Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times [DVD]

Features

• Type: DVD
• Studio: Alliance Films
• Language(s): english
• Subtitle(s): spanish
• Director(s): Andrew Rossi

The documentary Page One: A Year Inside "The New York Times" offers a rare look at the inner workings of the venerable news institution. But there's a twist. In 2009 and 2010, when Page One was filmed, The New York Times, and virtually all other print media, had presided for years over unprecedented losses in revenue, advertising, circulation, and even credibility. Ruinous decisions by Times management (allowing rogue reporter Judith Miller to run unsubstantiated stories about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction; enabling the dishonest writer Jayson Blair to publish story after story of nothing but lies) were compounded by the impact on all news media of the growth of digital media, online sources, and Twitter. So director Andrew Rossi decided to infiltrate the Times (with the Times' permission, of course) and focus on how it covered itself, and these crises, along with the changing media landscape. There are interviews with Times executive editor Bill Keller and managing editor Jill Abramson, as well as other masthead figures. But it's clear early on that there are two stars of this particular mini-drama--the coverage of media in the paper, and the proselytizing of the Times' continued relevance--David Carr, the irascible ex-junkie who covers media, and Brian Stelter, founder of the blog TVNewser, who is now on staff at the Times.The documentaryPage One: A Year Inside "The New York Times" offers a rare look at the inner workings of the venerable news institution. But there's a twist. In 2009 and 2010, whenPage One was filmed,The New York Times, and virtually all other print media, had presided for years over unprecedented losses in revenue, advertising, circulation, and even credibility. Ruinous decisions byTimes management (allowing rogue reporter Judith Miller to run unsubstantiated stories about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction; enabling the dishonest writer Jayson Blair to publish story after story of nothing but lies) were compounded by the impact on all news media of the growth of digital media, online sources, and Twitter. So director Andrew Rossi decided to infiltrate theTimes (with theTimes' permission, of course) and focus on how it covered itself, and these crises, along with the changing media landscape. There are interviews withTimes executive editor Bill Keller and managing editor Jill Abramson, as well as other masthead figures. But it's clear early on that there are two stars of this particular mini-drama--the coverage of media in the paper, and the proselytizing of theTimes' continued relevance--David Carr, the irascible ex-junkie who covers media, and Brian Stelter, founder of the blog TVNewser, who is now on staff at theTimes. Both Carr and Stelter are engaging, media-friendly personas. Stelter, especially, has to learn the ropes on the job, and does so impressively, uncovering and covering a story about WikiLeaks in near-real time. Meanwhile Carr outswears the cocky content aggregators in interviews and at events like South by Southwest. He's well informed and a fearless advocate for his employer. But the viewer begins to wish that some of the dozens of other key Timesers might take on this battle too. It's as if Carr is selected for the job because of his "youth cred"--the incessant swearing and the famous drug use (The Night of the Gun)--when it wouldn't hurt the Kellers or Abramsons to hit the spotlight too. But Page One: A Year Inside "The New York Times" is nonetheless a riveting story of one of the biggest business and cultural stories of the era. And it contains most of the news fit to print. --A.T. Hurley