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Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critics What's this?

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Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

  • Summary: In the tradition of great fly-on-the-wall documentaries, Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times deftly gains unprecedented access to The New York Times newsroom and the inner workings of the Media Desk. With the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, PAGE ONE chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. Writers like Brian Stelter, Tim Arango and the salty but brilliant David Carr track print journalism’s metamorphosis even as their own paper struggles to stay vital and solvent. Meanwhile, their editors and publishers grapple with existential challenges from players like WikiLeaks, new platforms ranging from Twitter to tablet computers, and readers’ expectations that news online should be free. But rigorous journalism is thriving. PAGE ONE gives us an up-close look at the vibrant cross-cubicle debates and collaborations, tenacious jockeying for on-the-record quotes, and skillful page-one pitching that produce the “daily miracle” of a great news organization. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of journalists continuing to produce extraordinary work—under increasingly difficult circumstances. (Magnolia Pictures)

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 31
  2. Negative: 2 out of 31
  1. Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Jun 16, 2011
    85
    While the media desk isn't the whole of the New York Times, it does give Rossi a solid perch from which to survey the paper's recent and ongoing struggle for both relevancy and revenues.
  2. Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    Jun 17, 2011
    80
    Emphasizing the importance of new media, Stelter is ready to bring the paper back to the future, though this terrific tale of an establishment in transition ultimately plays like "All the President's Men," with the intrigue coming from inside the building.
  3. Reviewed by: David Parkinson
    Sep 19, 2011
    60
    Ironically, it lacks journalistic rigour but it's a fond, nostalgic look at the gilded history of the Grey Lady.
  4. Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Jun 17, 2011
    38
    Basically a carefully airbrushed and authorized portrait of the Gray Lady during 14 months when there was serious speculation about the paper's impending demise.

See all 31 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. 10
    We enjoyed this insight into print journalism although we though it did not go into great depth. We had seen David Carr on Real Time with Bill Maher the week before which made us interested in the film. The film did not not toot the NY Times horn to much excess and gave us some insight into how a paper operates in today's recessionary world. Beat going to see "Transformers". Expand
  2. Excellent documentary about the attempts of the New York Times to keep its moral, professional, and financial balance in a time of declining ad revenue, the death of other big-city newspapers, alternative news presentation sources, reporter error(Judy Miller), journalistic fraud (Jayson Blair) and questionable partnerships (Wikileaks). On the whole, the documentary was credible and thought-provoking. It's true that David Carr, the featured NYT reporter, was a larger than life figure and that the rationale for using the Wikileaks material was a bit hard to accept, but there were many, many memorable moments: the look on an aggregator's face as Carr showed him what percentage of his "publication" would remain if his traditional media sources were removed; the confrontation between a new Tribune publisher and Tribune staff; the interaction among section editors as page one space was allocated. I am not a regular reader of the New York Times, but this documentary reminded me that there IS a critical mediating function to be carried out by high-quality investigative journalism. I hope the NYT finds it way and is still investigating and publishing--in some form--at the beginning of the 22nd century. Highly recommended. Expand
  3. A good, exciting movie which could have gone further. Not a hint about the alleged ideological bias which many believe is on display in the news section of the Gray Lady. It discussed Blair & Miller, but not quite enough about how the top level editors decide what makes A1. But I enjoyed it despite these issues. Expand
  4. An intriguing documentary on an incredibly timely topic, however its depressive nature combined with a lack of solutions presented make this little more than a revelation of something most already know. Expand