June 21, 2011

Film Review: “Page One: Inside the New York Times”

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nedward/1732101521/">John Niedermeyer</a>/Flickr

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Page One: Inside the New York Times

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

88 minutes

Director Andrew Rossi opens his doc with shots of clunky presses spitting out broadsheets—footage that feels dated, and that’s the point. He catches the Gray Lady at a moment when print is waning and the bosses are scrambling for ways—a paywall?—to survive the impending digital era. Rossi becomes “part of the furniture” at Times HQ as journos mull the value of Twitter, whether to publish WikiLeaks docs, and how best to cover the demise of newspapers. And while the film’s big unanswered questions might leave viewers feeling untethered, the paper’s personalities—from editors’ goofy antics to reporters coaxing sources into going on the record—leave us believing that all the news that’s fit to print isn’t doomed quite yet. “Of course we will survive,” insists media columnist David Carr, the film’s smack-talking star. “You,” he reminds his fellow journos, “are a bunch of tenacious motherfuckers!”

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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