Times Director Saw Keller 'About to Throw in the Towel'

In a scene from Page One, Bill Keller informs his staff about the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winners.

When Andrew Rossi began quietly documenting the New York Times in 2010, he had no idea the Iraq war would end, Wikileaks would expose government secrets, and the Times would roll out a new paywall, effectively symbolizing the marriage of old and new media. He did, however, suspect that Executive Editor Bill Keller would step down, a move that shocked Times readers. Between conversations with Keller himself before and after his announcement, we spoke with the filmmaker about the editor's legacy and his new documentary, Page One.

ESQUIRE: Obviously Bill Keller's resignation has huge implications for the paper, but what does this mean for your movie?

ANDREW ROSSI: It's a godsend for a documentary filmmaker when two weeks before you open in theaters, a major turning point occurs in the life of your subject. That, I think, in many ways, makes the film salient, and I think it crystallizes so many of the issues that were raised. It's almost like the movie is now this field manual for all of the landmines that Jill Abramson's gonna come up against as the new executive editor.

ESQ: Did you have any inkling that Bill would resign?

AR: I had no good inside intel or anything like that, but I definitely have been asking everyone when he was gonna leave because I could just tell. I've had a gut feeling for quite some time. But the general consensus was that he would probably stay for the election, so I assumed that was accurate. I have to say, there was a moment when Bill was discussing the fact that the Times had actually considered having a foundation support it, because the advertising market had so dramatically collapsed. And, you know, that's a moment to me of extraordinary candor in the film. And when he said that, I wondered to myself, "Are these the words of the executive editor of the New York Times?" And it just seemed to be rife with the wisdom and exhaustion of somebody who's about to throw in the towel, basically.

ESQ: You feel like he threw in the towel?

AR: I mean like a great fighter who's gone several rounds with a really worthy opponent, and is ready to ring the bell... and transition to writing. You know, I think he did nothing short of help to save the newspaper in a series of really cataclysmic events. I mean, he took over...

Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/andrew-rossi-page-one-interview-5874480?src=rss

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