Times Team Talks

Richard Berke, the assistant managing editor of The New York Times, last night interviewed Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, and Jill Abramson, the managing editor of The New York Times.
That’s a lot of Times.
Thrilled at the idea of seeing three journalists I admire, and all with jobs in this economy, I headed over to The Times Center, the should-be-more-impressive venue in the still-relatively-new New York Times building across from the Port Authority.
Carol Day, also a Timesian, introduced Berke, saying he had “the toughest job in journalism: interviewing his bosses.” Then Berke kept hitting that theme throughout the night. I think he joked about it three times. At first I thought he was kidding; later I thought he was pretty serious, maybe so much so that there should have been another moderator. But Berke was good, displaying a particular interest in the personal work habits and experiences of Keller and Abramson. I thought Berke could have hit harder and earlier on the changing nature of the news business, but that could just be because I’m unemployed and fixated both on the switch to digital and whether anyone will ever make money on it.
These Timespeople take a lot of crap—one of my best pals sent me last week the Keller appearance on “The Daily Show.” He came off like a stuffy Times dude, from what I saw, but I stopped watching. I was not hungry to see the Times being insulted. If I want to see a journalist in trouble, I’ll look in the damn mirror.
In person, Keller is old-school elegant, with intelligent things to say about the Times and the world. He said he was suffering from jet lag, but that only made him more likably laconic. Back from Iran, where he wrote front-page news himself for the first time in 14 years (Berke counted), Keller admitted that one great thing about his most recent overseas trip was that nobody came up to him and asked, “How are you going to monetize the Web?” He was also good when explaining the simple but significant value of sending reporters around the world and around the city to gather information and see things firsthand. He talked about how “we’re there” and also insisted the Times has certain standards, but he was not egotistical about it. “Newspapers are put out by human beings,” he said, “so we don’t do any of this perfectly.”
Abramson and Keller painted themselves as a kind of odd-couple who work well together. Keller to Abramson: “I think you are the designated worrier.” Abramson to us: “I am in my family, too. It’s a terrible double-dose.” She called herself the “Department of Dark Worries” and said she’s the one who really hates when the Times gets scooped.
By evening’s end, I wanted to work for either or both of them. Okay, I’m lying—I have wanted for several years to work there. But I really did think they both handled well the tired criticisms of the Times’ coverage of the Middle East, with Keller refusing to concede a pro-Palestinian slant to the coverage. And they came off, especially when speaking of the recent escape of reporter and ex-hostage David Rohde, as though they understand how to manage a team of human beings. Abramson quoted Keller quoting Mandela: “You lead from behind.”
There were a lot of smart bits and pieces. I could almost believe, by evening’s end, that Keller and company would do what they said they were working on doing when it comes to the sustainability of the Times: “figure this out.”
Good luck with that. Really. In the meantime, I’m sending these people my resume.