Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	88:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Andrew Rossi
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kate Novack Andrew Rossi Tim Arango Julian Assange Carl Bernstein David Carr Bruce Headlam Bill Keller Brian Stelter Brian Stetler Jimmy Wales
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Paul Brill

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Around the United States, around the World, more and more print media companies are going to the wall. Page One - Inside the New York Times looks at this most venerable of broadsheets and asks the question - could the mightiest newspaper on the planet fall from its pedestal and more tellingly, what role does the traditional print media have to play in the future of reportage and information gathering?

     It has been a bleak past few years for the Times. When director Andrew Rossi is given unprecedented 14 month long access to the newsroom in 2009 he finds a business and an industry under siege. Young people don't read newspapers anymore. The older generation are also slowly being drawn in by digital media. Advertising revenues have hit rock bottom and the Times' attempts to compete on-line haven't been great successes. It is not just newspapers. Magazines are suffering too. Just take a look at the frequency with which Who Magazine features full page adverts stating that they are not in trouble!

     Page One introduces us to some key players in the future of the Times. Editor David Farrell is putting a brave face on the crisis whilst reducing the number of reporters. The new media reporting section is trying to report on the nature of the precipice without driving themselves off it. In a year many things can happen. In 2010 it was WikiLeaks. All of a sudden the traditional news sources are forced to compete for news with a renegade source, with little care for accountability. Getting into bed with Julian Assange may have sold a lot of papers, as the Times provided a daily summary of the embassy logs, but did it compromise their journalistic ethics?

     The film focusses on a couple of journalists including the recovering drug addict and hard man David Carr who bemoans the fact that in the modern age any person with any agenda can stick something on-line which becomes news without the role of the journalist, to enquire and verify, being engaged. The quietly arrogant bloggers respond with the clincher - the news is what has happened, not the journalists take on it, and how can a paper like the Times expect to be relevant when it is reporting yesterday’s news.

     The real answer of course is that there are some incisive on-line commentators but no-one quite like a seasoned journalist to expose the story behind the story.

Video

     Page One - Inside the New York Times comes to DVD in a 1.85:1 transfer consistent with the original cinematic aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     The documentary was shot on high-definition digital video. There are no real classic talking heads shots in the film. Instead the interviewees are filmed at their desk and on the run, off to investigate the next story. Consequently, this is not a pristine and elegant viewing experience. It was not meant to be. It is, however, a very satisfactory image quality bearing in mind the origins and intentions of the peace.

     There is some light digital noise throughout the film but otherwise no real technical defects. The colours are bright and stable and the flesh tones are accurate.

     Except for instances where the speaker is difficult to understand there are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     The sound for Inside the New York Times is Dolby Digital 5.1 English running at 448 KP/S. The presence of a surround sound track is probably overkill for what is essentially interview material and conversation. There is little for the surrounds and sub-woofer to do.

     On occasions the sound is a little rough and ready as much of the film is done on the fly. On occasions there are subtitles where the dialogue is difficult to comprehend.

    The musical score is credited to Paul Brill.

Audio Ratings Summary

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    There are no extras.

     This DVD is identical to the release in Region One. Buy local

     Being a fly on the wall at the New York Times allows us, the viewers, to see what it is like working in a newspaper office at a time of great change. If Inside the New York Times lacks a cohesive structure due to the vagaries of embedding a journalist in a group of journalists then the film makes up for it with the curious and queasy feeling that we may just be watching the last gasp of a dying breed. Inside the New York Times receives a decent DVD presentation in keeping with its filmic style. The lack of extras is perhaps no surprise but it still would have been nice to get an up-to-the-minute guide to the stock price of the Times!

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