Who's Left at the New York Times?
The New York Times has long been considered the top of the media food chain, the final stop in a journalism career. No mas. In recent weeks, the Times has been leaking talent left and right. Who do they have left that they really need to hang on to?
Media reporting wonder boy Brian Stelter left for CNN. Top editor Rick Berke left for THE POLITICO. Bizarrely popular math whiz Nate Silver left for ESPN. Senior political writer Matt Bai and tech guru David Pogue left for Yahoo. These are not just the typical comings and goings of the job market. These are all, to varying degrees, people whose "personal brands" make them so valuable that the Times really, really would have preferred to keep them. The kind of people who cannot be easily replaced. The kind of people who presumably inspire bidding wars—bidding wars that the Times clearly lost.
The New York Times is still full of good journalists. But its roster of journalists whose "personal brands" are actually valuable is dwindling. The following people seem to be the only readily apparent ones the Times has left. And all of them should probably be thinking about renegotiating for raises right about now
Andrew Ross Sorkin: The Dealbook guy may be a bit of a Wall Street bootlicker, but hey, that's why Wall Street loves him, and that's why he's worth so much money to the Times. Losing him would be a huge blow to the paper's business desk, in the sense of "how much it is read by people who are actually bankers. | |
David Carr: The grizzled rock star half of the media desk (to Stelter's robot boy half), Carr has a bestselling book, a movie all about him, and more fans than any media reporter could reasonably hope to have (including every other media reporter). Carr can write his own ticket. The Times just needs to keep him interested. | |
Jenna Wortham: She's young, she's "cool" in a hipster-nerd way, she's well connected and well regarded, and she writes about tech things. She is one of the very few New York Times writers who seems to live in the future, rather than the past. And plenty of tech sites would surely love to steal her. | |
The national security reporters: After 9/11, two wars, the Bush years, and Edward Snowden, reporters who can bring home scoops about national security issues are more valuable than ever. For the Times, that means Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazetti, along with Charlie Savage, who covers the Justice Department, and David Sanger, who covers foreign policy. Among others. The paper should make it a policy to hang onto its experienced national security reporters no matter what, lest they start getting scooped regularly by Glenn Greenwald's startup. | |
Deborah Needleman: The editor of T magazine. Formerly editor of Domino and the Wall Street Journal's unnecessary weekend magazine. Needleman has proven that she can run the sort of magazine that actually draws enough advertisers to make enough money to support things like, you know, national security reporting. She's a valuable commodity. | |
Will Shortz: Never fuck with the crossword puzzles. They're all newspapers have left. | |
Paul Krugman: The paper's only truly stellar columnist. Losing him would be disastrous. | |
Tom Friedman: A uniquely awful writer, and also probably the most famous of the Times' (editorially weak but high profile) op-ed columnists. [Many of the paper's columnists are famous, and economically worth hanging on to, because they have strong followings. This should not be interpreted as meaning that most of them are "good."] | |
David Brooks: This guy is real famous too. Why? It's a mystery to me. He fits the criteria here, though. What a world. | |
Nick Kristof: Virtuous, worthwhile, dry, boring. Respected enough to keep. | |
Maureen Dowd: Ugh. God. Cliche-ridden and trite. Well over the hill. Phoning it in. But, yes, she still has a big audience. And it's not like the Times has done a great job of grooming female successors on the op-ed page. | |
Mark Bittman: A foodie cult figure, and a serviceable, though not thrilling, columnist. Those foodies fucking worship this guy, though. And foodies buy things, like food, and newspapers. | |
Charles Blow: Another boring but serviceable columnist. Goes on TV a lot. John Cook thinks he should be on this list, though opinions vary. | |
Arthur Sulzberger The Youngest.: Sure would be embarrassing to see him get poached, you know? |
[If you can think of anyone else, nominate them below. Image by Jim Cooke]