The New York Times is a very revered newspaper.  They have did some wonderful reporting, but people are so willing to jump on the hate wagon when they get it wrong.  PAGE ONE takes the viewers inside the New York Times media desk and gives a behind-the-scenes look at the newspaper reporters including the editor and the notable reporters like Brian Stelter and David Carr (who steals every scene he is in- he is the star of this documentary even though he wanted Andrew Rossi also focus on other people in this film).    Brian Stetler embraces the new media like twitter and blogging while David Carr was first slow to embrace it (I like the deleted scene where he is making web videos which he quit doing because he felt they came off as hostage videos).  

Newspapers face challenges from the changing landscape with internet news and blogging in addition to advertising not bringing in the big revenue like it used to (again the internet is responsible for this downturn).   The New York Times like other papers had to cut jobs and make decisions who to send out on location or farm out reporting to locals in that reporting area in addition to partnering with a non-profit news organizations to do news stories.   PAGE ONE covers the reaction of the reporters to the WikiLeaks video and NBC declaring the war in Iraq was over (Pentagon said no while NBC created the story for a headline).   Even though newspapers are supposed to be non-biased, they are still influenced by their judgment of what will be the best stuff to report and sometimes it even is colored by the opinions of the reporters and the newspaper.   The New York Times fights to survive and even adapts with the changing face of how news is reported in the internet age.   Newspapers have crumbled and the story of the fall of Tribune Media is also covered in PAGE ONE (which went bankrupt and the New York Times uncovered the sexual harassment that happened at Tribune).

PAGE ONE is a fascinating and riveting documentary.  It is one of the best documentaries I have seen as director Andrew Rossi provides a very balanced look at the New York Times.  It is up to the viewer to decide whether the New York Times is a good newspaper still and how they handle the changes (and mistakes).   PAGE ONE made me feel like I knew the reporters at the paper and what makes them tick.  David Carr is a colorful newspaper writer who does steal the film from everyone else.  He makes a good point in one scene that internet media repurposes stories from newspapers and shows what the news landscape could be like if newspapers went away. This documentary  could have easily been about David Carr and still been a mesmerizing piece of work.   Still Carr's life is only one of the elements that makes this documentary tick.   PAGE ONE is a document on a respected newspaper and what makes it tick- definitely worth watching.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The extras feature additional scenes that don't fit in the overall documentary narrative, but still each scene including Carr's hostage web videos are great to watch.   Also a mini-feature covers a little bit on New York Times reporter Tim Arango after he takes the job of being the head of the Iraq news desk in Baghdad and works with news photographer Joao Silva in Iraq.

CARL BERNSTEIN ON THE REAL THREAT TO NEWSPAPERS

EMILY BELL ON KEEPING JOURNALISM RELEVANT

SARAH ELLISON ON THE MID OF MURDOCH as she talks about Murdoch's vendetta against the New York Times.

JOURNALISTS REACT TO PAGE ONE shows reporters from print and TV give their reactions to the documentary after seeing it.

Q&A HIGHLIGHTS WITH CAST AND FILMMAKERS has bits from various Q&As that the Filmmakers and reporters of the New York Times have in promoting PAGE ONE.