Media: Analysis and Length in the New York Times

Reporters at the New York Times have questioned whether a higher word count allows more freedom to stray from journalistic objectivity.  Some worried about the ethical principles of the publication, and looked towards the standards of the magazine, which some believed to be too lax.

Article length plays a significant role in print news.  Daily reports require the recitation of facts while longer pieces rely on analysis.  Reporters have been pressured to state just the facts in shorter pieces, but longer articles allow them to include more information and additional angles on the focus of the story.

Articles in magazines are considerably longer than newspaper pieces.  Gerald Marzorati, the editor of the New York Times magazine, said longer pieces allow narratives to unfold, which may present history, personal profiles or a story of a specific thing.  “A cover story we published a couple of years ago on Social Security reform took thousands of words to explain the origins of S.S. and the changes to the program over the years — something a newspaper piece would never have the space to do,” he said in an e-mail.

A 2005 report to the executive editor of the Times entitled Preserving Our Reader’s Trust (available at http://www.nytco.com/press/) documented staffers’ anxieties about the magazine.  “Our magazine’s journalism stirs some strong feelings inside the newsroom,” the report read.  “Some who work for the daily paper contend that the magazine’s standards are looser and too tolerant of opinion and, further, that the difference tarnishes the entire paper.”

There is another distinction between the two mediums besides length. Matt Bai, a writer at the New York Times Magazine, pointed out that the purpose of the interview is different in magazine and newspaper reporting.  “My interviews are to help me understand the issue so I can write with some authority,” he said.  “I think the one big difference in a newspaper is getting quotes.  At a magazine you’re more concerned about taking in an issue so you can talk about it in your own voice.”

The medium of the magazine is accepted to be analytical, Bai said during a phone interview from his home in Washington D.C.  “You go on the assumption that the reader expects your opinion and your interpretation of events more readily than the newspaper.”

Magazine writers usually include their own look at the issue, which raises the question of whether the writer is editorializing.  Both writers and editors suggest that it is the medium of the magazine that encourages and requires certain freedoms.

In Bai’s article, “America’s Mayor Goes to America,” he detailed what he believes to be Rudy Giuliani’s faults and assets in the 2008 presidential election. “Giuliani doesn’t exactly run from this image; it is, at bottom, part of the notion he is selling of a leader who won’t back down or settle for mediocrity, who has the sheer force of will to ‘do the impossible,’” Bai wrote in the article.

Bai also described the trouble he went through to score an interview with the Republican candidate.  “After several weeks of requesting a 90-minute interview with Giuliani to discuss some of these vexing policy questions, I was finally informed that I could have 45 minutes with him after his town-hall meeting at a high school in Bettendorf, Iowa, in early August,” the article read.

The struggle Bai encountered with Giuliani became part of the story, because, “Part of understanding his campaign is his transparency,” he said.  “The fact that he’s so callous to the media is an important point to be made in the piece.”  He added, “If somebody is difficult to question I think it’s wrong not to include it.”

This kind of biographical and “authority” reporting would be unacceptable in a daily or weekly news article. “In newspaper journalism there could be some voice but it’s less of an overt point of view,” said Michael Powell, who works at the political desk of the New York Times.

Ideally, both newspaper and magazine articles are supposed to be objective.  Magazine articles do not present opinions, rather, analysis based on what the writer learned.  Marzorati explained, “Narratives have to have a point of view, which is different from an opinion.  Point of view means, most simply, the place you are standing and telling the story from, with authority.”

Powell agreed with this notion, and he said a lot of the responsibility falls on readers.  “It’s a mature view of the New York Times,” he said.  “There’s many different kinds of writing.  A good reader will realize there’s leeway in terms of style and point of view in the magazine.”