Page One: Inside the New York Times

This is the Winnipeg Free Press that my parents read:

This is the Winnipeg Free Press that I read:

My parents pay for a subscription to the paper copy that gets updated daily, yet I get mine free with up to the minute updates that I can carry around with me everywhere I go.  Seems like a no brainer if you had to choose one right?

This is the issue that print newspapers are facing in this technologically driven society. Page One: Inside the New York Times, a film by Andrew Rossi, chronicles one year at the New York Times as this technology seems to be deteriorating the old fashioned news sources we all grew up with - paper. 

Before I saw this documentary I was a little sceptical. How much loss can news apps reallybe causing for companies? I mean I see people reading the paper everyday; on the bus, at school, at work. I really didn’t think that most of the public would find the need to completely shift the way they get their news.

Apparently I was wrong. 

The New York Times is one of the few print newspapers that has survived the changes that media has seen with social networking and apps, but the worry isn’t completely absent in their minds. The journalists and editors scramble throughout the film to find ways to be ahead of the curb. They show how news that breaks in the middle of the day is accessible to the public so much faster online than they can offer and they don’t rule out the possibility that the Times could go out of business...

But even with all these troubles journalism seems to be striving at the Times. The level of intelligence and awareness that you see from these journalists especially David Carr and Brian Stelter is astounding. The differences between their styles of reporting is what I thought was the most interesting part of the movie. David Carr spends his time interviewing in person drilling information out everyone and writing like a madman, he’s so passionate about the Times and it’s so evident in his actions.

Brian Stelter is what Carr describes as a robot sent to destroy him. Three screens open at once one he is a social media expert and an incredible multitasker. If you are curious at all about how the newspaper business functions on a day to day basis you need to see this. I was so much more engaged than I thought I would be and it turned out to be a great experience.