Bill Keller | The New York Observer

Why Won't Times Pay Model Go Live 'Til 2011?

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:11:51 -0500

Why does The Times need 12 months before it introduces a metered system for charging readers for content? Or rather, why announce it so far ahead?

Speculation that an announcement was meant to be timed to the release of the Apple Tablet, rumored to be the topic of a big Cupertino "event" slated for Jan. 27, have been dismissed (often in the same venues in which it was initially raised.)

The paper may simply have...

Journal: Times Editor Tried to 'Influence' Pulitzer Committee with Letter

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:00:57 -0500

A Wall Street Journal spokesman released a statement today that said Times executive editor Bill Keller tried to damage the Journal's chances of a winning a Pulitzer for a piece on China's Three Gorges Dam with a letter he wrote to the Polk committee last year.

The letter that Mr. Keller wrote, which we published here last night, took issue with a press release about a Journal story that won a Polk award for its coverage...

Keller's Letter, Revealed: What Times Ed Told Committee About Journal

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:26:46 -0500

Somehow, New York City's burgeoning broadsheet war is just a little, well, textier than the one that has for years embroiled our two tabloids, the New York Post and the Daily News.

This week, Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson threw a sort of punch at New York Times executive editor Bill Keller after Times media columnist David Carr on Dec. 14 published an appraisal of The Journal in the two years...

Robert Thomson Takes Swing at David Carr, Bill Keller [Update]

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:39:41 -0500

Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson took David Carr and Bill Keller to task for a story published in the Times today about the Journal's Washington bureau.

Mr. Carr wrote that the Journal's D.C. coverage has been "adopting a more conservative tone" and that editors have been "editing and headlining articles to reflect a chronic skepticism of the current administration" ever since Mr. Thomson took over the paper as editor. Mr. Carr used former D.C. Journal staffers and two...

Sun's Seeley to Head New, New York–Centric Section at WSJ

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:45:22 -0500

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal drafted plans for a New York–only culture section. It didn’t take long for that project to be shelved, and Rupert Murdoch’s Journal decided to take on the city itself—with a New York–only news section that will cover everything you’d expect from a local newspaper: politics, news, sports and, yes, culture.

“They want to do everything,” said one source familiar with the project.

Inside...

Times Buyout Package Reveals More than Expected

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:09:04 -0400

Just over a week ago, every person in the Times newsroom was sent out a buyout package via UPS Next Day Air. If 100 staffers don’t raise their hands by Dec. 7, there will be layoffs.

We got our hands on one of the thickish brown envelopes that went to employees’ homes. In addition to revealing the actual details of the buyout offer—generally, three weeks pay per year of service and up to...

The New York Times Puts Up Its Dukes

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:59:42 -0400

There was a time when The New York Times never had to say anything back. If the newspaper caught hell for a story in the popular media, editors at the paper could rely on the time-tested formulation: "The story speaks for itself." When critics carped about the newspapers' editorial vision, business plan, or financial position, it was once enough for Arthur Sulzberger or Janet Robinson to just sort of roll their eyes and move...

The New York Times Puts Up Its Dukes

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:56:00 -0400

There was a time when The New York Times never had to say anything back. If the newspaper caught hell for a story in the popular media, editors at the paper could rely on the time-tested formulation: "The story speaks for itself." When critics carped about the newspapers' editorial vision, business plan, or financial position, it was once enough for Arthur Sulzberger or Janet Robinson to just sort of roll their eyes and move...

Obama's Washington: Hanks and Springsteen Stuck Outside Dowd's Party, Keller Misses His Cake

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:42:27 -0500

One measure of the new Washington trendiness, at least for inauguration week, has been the number of celebrities now making reservations at places like Café Milano.

Another barometer may be the number of A-Listers who couldn't get into a D.C. house party.

On Saturday night, Maureen Dowd threw a rager at her Georgetown townhouse that grew so crowded that Tom Hanks, Ben Affleck, and Bruce Springsteen couldn’t get through the door. (One source heard that...