Hush Hush At The New York Times

At the most challenging time for daily newspapers in their entire history, the New York Times continues to be the nation’s newspaper of record. However, even at the venerable paper, news gathering and publishing are undergoing rapid transformations, and the New York Times has had to cut its staff to stay competitive. PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES by filmmaker Andrew Rossi is an absorbing behind-the-scenes look at how the New York Times is handling the rise of new media, and considers what will become of the newspaper in the future.

Shooting solo over a 14-month period at the NYT offices, filmmaker Andrew Rossi was given unprecedented access……to high-level daily editorial meetings and publishing decisions made behind closed doors. Much of the story is focused on Media Desk Editor Bruce Headlam and his efforts to navigate the famous wikileaks story, while several “new media” reporters such as Dave Carr, Tim Arango and Brian Stelter combine classic reportage with blogger appeal to create a new kind of 21^st century journalism. In concentrating primarily on the NYT’s Media Desk, Rossi reveals how the newspaper is covering and coping with current changes in the business of news gathering and publishing. The film reveals tensions between the NYT’s old-school print journalists who see themselves as journalism’s meticulous standard bearers and its younger and enthusiastic staff bloggers who feel their contribution is to spread word about what’s happening in the world through fast and furious online publishing.

In these often heated scenarios, the Times has its loudest advocate and biggest rock star in David Carr, the sometimes irascible veteran reporter whose charisma threatens to hijack the film altogether. Whether he’s putting aggregators like Newser’s Michael Wolff in their place or simply letting Rossi observe his day-to-day reporting, Carr is easily PAGE ONE’s most memorable camera subject. Recorded over a period of 14 months, Rossi’s coverage of daily news meetings and interviews with editorial staffers gives its audience a front road seat to the action and an unprecedented look at how decisions are made that affect our view of the world. PAGE ONE was the inaugural film at the new Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at New York’s Lincoln Center this week and begins its national roll out via distributor Magnolia Pictures. For more information on the film, visit:  http://www.takepart.com/pageone

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