Nikki Usher - Making News at The New York Times

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Joseph Turow
SERIES EDITOR

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The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age
Joseph Turow and Lokman Tsui, editors

When Media Are New: Understanding the Dynamics of New Media Adoption and Use
John Carey and Martin C. J. Elton

Making News at The New York Times
Nikki Usher

DIGITALCULTUREBOOKS, an imprint of the University of Michigan Press, is dedicated to publishing work in new media studies and the emerging field of digital humanities.

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Nikki Usher

The University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor

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Copyright 2014 by Nikki Usher
All rights reserved

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher.

Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper

2017 2016 2015 2014 4 3 2 1

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-472-11936-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-472-03596-0 (paper : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-472-12049-9 (e-book)

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To Herbert Gans,
for his invaluable advice, wit, and wisdom
and for inspiring me to begin a journey
into the changing newsroom

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This project would have been impossible without the unconditional support I received at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and at the George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. I extend my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Larry Gross, for his support, advice, and critique. I also want to thank my dissertation committee, Henry Jenkins, Geneva Overholser, and Patti Riley, for their feedback and willingness to let me write a book instead of a traditional dissertation. Larry had me change hands and sent me to Joe Turow, a fantastic scholar, editor, and author at Annenberg Eastthe University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School. Joe took this manuscript for his ambitious new series with the University of Michigan Press and provided incredible insight, editing, and trenchant support to get it into shape. I am incredibly lucky to have had him at my side. I also have been fortunate to have had the kind support of Tom Dwyer, past executive editor at the University of Michigan Press, who has been steadfastly supportive of my potential as a junior scholar.

I would also like to thank all of the many senior scholars who have helped me from graduate school to this point. In addition, having the chance to engage with Herbert Gans through years' worth of emails and far too few in-person meetings has been humbling and challenging. My cohort of junior scholars engaged in similar work have been astoundingly supportive, considering that we could be jealously at heads with each other. I particularly want to thank C.W. Anderson for our Page x friendship and his collegiality, and I would be at a loss without Matt Carlson, Seth Lewis, and Matt Powers and our regular email banter. The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs has been encouraging throughout this process as I have moved from dissertation to book. I want to thank all my colleagues, especially Kim Gross, Frank Sesno, Steven Livingston, Bob Entman, and Catie Bailard. Kim, Frank, Silvio Waisbord, and Matt Hindman read various drafts of this book; Bob provided amazing advice about the publishing process, Silvio a chill pill. Matt challenged me and helped me think through some serious blocks, and I am lucky he was working on a new book as I began mine. Our colleague emeritus Jerry Manheim read much of this manuscript. All of my colleagues deserve thanks, and I expect our ties to deepen over the coming years. My dutiful research assistant Todd Kominiak read every word and formatted the document. And of course, deep gratitude goes to those who helped make sure I was housed and fed, and properly funded and reimbursed: Christine Lloreda at Annenberg and Maria Jackson at GWU.

Finally, special thanks to The New York Times and the business desk in particular. Larry Ingrassia and Bill Schmidt let me into the newsroom, and Kevin McKenna guided me while I was thereand answered any and all possible questions I might have. Special thanks to a few Times staffers who made my work so much fun: Tanzina Vega, Michael J. de la Merced, Mark Getzfred, Brian Stelter, Javier Hernandez, Eric Dash, and Kelly Couturier. Liz Alderman was the crucial link in my International Herald Tribune knowledge and in a visit to Paris, which was truly amazing. Many at The Times helped in so many ways, though of course all errors here are my own.

Thanks to all of my friends outside the walls of academia who have helped me through this processboth with the manuscript and with your kind support. And special thanks to my wife, Shelly Layser, who continues to be my inspiration. I couldn't ask for anything more in a life partner.

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The new New York Times building that stands blocks away from its namesake Times Square is a fifty-two-story, Renzo Piano-designed office tower between Fortieth and Forty-first streets on Eighth Avenue. The ground floor of the building is dedicated to a New York Times auditorium, rented out for events and used by The Times for Times Talks, where New Yorkers have the chance to meet their favorite Times critic or other public intellectualor in some cases, a baseball player for the Yankees. The building itself is, as the leasing office proclaims, the first high rise curtain wall with ceramic sunscreen to be built in the United States. Practically, what this means is that the glass-walled building has light-sensitive blinds that open and shut of their own accord, based on passing clouds or bright afternoon sunlight. The magic of this system wore off quickly for many of the staffers inside, who learned to look up when the loud flaps move and promptly reconfigure the blinds to their liking.

The new building is a great contrast to the paper's home since 1913 on West Forty-third Street. The old building was a dour, sparsely windowed gray stone edifice hidden on a side street away from the bustle of Times Square. Known to generations of journalists as the factory, it surely contributed to the paper's image as the Gray Lady of American journalism. The new home of The New York Times for the digital age, though, is smack-dab in the middle of its audience. You almost have Page 2 to pass the building to get between the Port Authority and the Times Square subway stop. Journalists who happen to be eating lunch in the fourteenth-floor cafeteria, or simply looking out the window, can see the city in endless motion.

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