PAGE ONE

Review
Page One: Inside The New York Times occasionally shows what the title seems to promise:
the process of deciding which stories get to live on the most valuable piece of real estate in
the newspaper business. These scenes, however, are few and brief. For most of its 88
minutes, this documentary by writer-director-cinematographer Andrew Rossi and his cowriter, Kate Novack, is preoccupied not with the world of events you might read on page
one, but with the question of whether newspapers can afford to keep printing anything
there at all. Movie shows you the ups and downs of print journalism roughly from October
2009 through October 2010. Page One incorporates 10 major stories from the period,
selecting them to illustrate the forces that now affect even the magisterial Times.
Page One front-loads its narrative with stories that are not about the newspaper business
per se but about online media, cable television, and the decision by entertainment
conglomerates to shrink their investments in broadcast reporting. Much is made of the
ability of WikiLeaks to break a story on YouTube, without having to rely on any news
organization; much is made of reporter Brian Stelters rise from being a self-employed
blogger to having a coveted staff position on the Times. Page One nevertheless gives you a
strong impression of the old print world being overwhelmed by the new and the wired.
In the first half of the movie they call up the threats and challenges that face the paper.
Then, in the second half, they build up the case for the ongoing value of the Times. Its a
conflict of interest. I know almost nothing about how The New York Times works.
It's a bracing reminder that good writing and good journalism don't happen naturally; they
have to be nurtured.