She is risen. Illo: Fred Harper

LAST THURSDAY, Jill Abramson compared her appointment to executive editor of The New York Times to “ascending to Valhalla,” the blissful banquet hall of the Viking afterlife.

In Norse mythology, admission to Odin’s golden palace required a mortal to perform feats of strength and acts of bravery in battle—which Ms. Abramson’s biography does not lack. She’s taken on hostile lawyers, conniving editors and a refrigerated truck on her way to becoming the first female executive editor in the paper’s 160-year saga.

“I think she has a lot of plate metal in her,” said New Yorker writer Jane Mayer, Ms. Abramson’s friend since high school, recalling Ms. Abramson’s long recovery from a broken leg and foot after being struck by a truck in Manhattan in 2007.

“She is bionic in many ways, even literally.”

Still, Ms. Abramson’s appointment was no foregone conclusion. For one thing, she is not a Times lifer, as Bill Keller and Howell Raines were. Washington bureau chief and assistant managing editor Dean Baquet was a formidable opponent, having already served as the top editor at the Los Angeles Times and successfully subbed for Ms. Abramson while she took a sabbatical to study digital media. Other rivals included Larry Ingrassia, who had revitalized the business section, and Andy Rosenthal, the longtime Op-Ed editor.

The news was certainly a surprise to her family.

“I was squealing, on the street, on my phone, when she called to tell me she got it,” her daughter, Cornelia Griggs, told The Observer.

Ms. Abramson’s former colleagues credit Steve Brill with first putting her through the trials that would make her a warrior worthy of the Times. In 1979, Mr. Brill launched The American Lawyer and filled its masthead with a class of bright, young journalists. Among them were future Mad Money host Jim Cramer, Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, New Yorker writer James B. Stewart, and Businessweek editor Ellen Pollock.

No slouches, to be sure, but Ms. Abramson is now the trade magazine’s star alumna.

Mr. Brill was famously demanding of his cub reporters. He assigned a list of the most powerful law firms to Ms. Abramson and others and insisted they report the firms’ financial data. Private practice attorneys, unaccustomed to press scrutiny, didn’t appreciate the attention and were anything but forthcoming.

On the plus side, corporate lawyers were as dismissive of male reporters as female ones, which made for a level playing field.

When Ms. Abramson’s husband, Henry Griggs III, a consultant to nonprofit groups, took a job in D.C., she expressed interest in transferring. Mr. Brill put the 32-year-old journalist in charge of his latest acquisition, a D.C. legal trade publication called The Legal Times.

Following the birth of Cornelia, she downshifted to working part-time. Mr. Brill told her, “Let’s assume you’re going to work three-quarters time or half time, and you tell me if you’ve worked less or more.”

“With someone like Jill, there’s no way I wasn’t going to get more than my money’s worth,” he said. But no bargain lasts long. The next year, she was snagged by The Wall Street Journal.

“Anyone who could survive a year with Brill I’d be interested in looking at,” Bloomberg chief content officer Norman Pearlstine told The Observer. Ms. Abramson had thrived for many more than that. Mr. Pearlstine recommended Ms. Abramson to Al Hunt, then Washington editor of the Journal, who hired her to do investigative pieces on the intersection between politics and business.

Quickly recognized as someone with a knack for management, she was later named Washington bureau chief.

Throughout, she remained close with Ms. Mayer, who was the first female White House correspondent at the Journal. They were gym buddies, whose locker-room talk mostly involved the machinations of power in D.C.

“Jill and Jane weren’t the first women in the Washington bureau, but they were stars, and they were a force to be reckoned with,” former Journal editor Paul Steiger told The Observer. (They later formed a sort of triumvirate with Maureen Dowd.)

Ms. Abramson’s move from the Journal to The New York Times was a lateral one and, according to Mr. Steiger, slightly lower paying.

But she was determined to work at the paper of record. “I don’t turn to the money and investment for comfort reading the way I turn to the culture coverage at The New York Times,” Mr. Steiger remembers her saying. “It’s my bible.”

It was a difficult period. Ms. Abramson battled constantly with then-executive editor Raines from her station in Washington. He reportedly tried to move her to the books section, in hopes, it was thought, of making space for his favorite reporter, Patrick E. Tyler.

But Ms. Abramson had earned the good will of publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., whom she’d known as he trained to inherit the family business by doing a stint as a reporter in the Times’s Washington bureau.

When it became clear that Mr. Raines had put too much faith in his favorites, like Judith Miller and Jayson Blair, Ms. Abramson’s judgments were affirmed. In the aftermath of Mr. Raines and his deputy Gerald Boyd’s implosion, a new regime was left standing in the rubble, and Mr. Keller and Ms. Abramson were it.

THE TALE OF MS. ABRAMSON's Times redemption could be a sermon on the heavenly virtues of diligence and humility, but Ms. Abramson is a devotee of a more secular faith.

“The Times substituted for religion in my house,” she said in an interview with Times media reporter Jeremy W. Peters. And now it’s up to her to fulfill the holy covenant.

The second daughter of textiles importer Norman Abramson and his wife, Dovie, Ms. Abramson grew up on the Upper West Side and attended the progressive, highly competitive Fieldston School.

“She had great skirts,” remembered Ms. Mayer, her former schoolmate.

From there it was off to Harvard, where she studied history and worked as a stringer for Time. She met Henry Griggs III when they appeared together in a college production of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever. In the Crimson, Ms. Abramson’s small role received a less favorable review than Mr. Griggs’s piano accompaniment. (Ms. Abramson no longer acts, but Mr. Griggs continues to play piano, at parties.)

They raised two children, who are now in their early 20’s. Cornelia graduated from Columbia Medical School last year and is now a surgery intern at New York  Presbyterian Hospital. Will is a founder of Cantora Records, home of popular indie rock acts MGMT, Violens and Rifle Men. Will’s childhood friend William Woodson, who spent stints living with the Griggses, is an unofficial third sibling. He now works in hospitality and lives in New York. In Arlington, Va., the family’s Sears Roebuck-style bungalow was the kind of laid-back house where teenagers congregated and flopped on furniture, a Westie asked to be played with and something was cooking.

The crew now splits their time between Tribeca and Connecticut.

Times obsessives know that the family now has a new dog, Scout, a golden retriever. They also know Ms. Abramson feels bad about buying Scout from a breeder and not a shelter, worries about the nutritional content of Scout’s treats, arranges play dates for Scout and lets Scout up on the couch, because she wrote a column about Scout’s first year in the Garden section of the Times (it has been expanded into a book to be published by Times Books in October).

The puppy column illustrates what’s most groundbreaking about Ms. Abramson’s rise: she accomplished it without fully accommodating herself to the institution’s still largely male culture (especially at the managing editor level). She is stylishly dressed. She is proud to have played a crucial role in national security stories and is an unabashed fan of T Magazine.

“After 25 years of work as an investigative reporter and editor, I’m not too worried about being taken seriously,” Ms. Abramson told The Observer.

Ms. Abramson has a reputation for spotting and developing talent, especially among women. She lured star Washington reporter Helene Cooper from the Journal. She mentors younger female reporters and editors in the newsroom and offers casual guidance to her daughter’s friends in the industry. And she routinely pings Ms. Mayer when an issue of The New Yorker comes out without a single female byline.

“We don’t have to necessarily wear padded shoulders that make us look like men or be serious 24 hours a day about everything,” Ms. Mayer said. “She can both kick ass more than anyone as a news person and make a great salad dressing.

“That’s the ultimate liberation,” she said.

WHEN A VIKING ASCENDED TO VALHALLA, it was said that Odin had claimed him for his army of gods, which would fight monsters during an apocalyptic event called Ragnarok, the “doom of powers.” Mr. Sulzberger and Times C.E.O. Janet Robinson might have been thinking along the same lines in lifting Ms. Abramson from the newsroom.

Mr. Keller saw the paper through the integration of the digital newsroom and the implementation of the pay wall, but it will be Ms. Abramson under whom the ventures’ success or failure will be determined. She trained for the task during a three-month digital media tour that was termed “Jill’s Big Adventure.”

“The customer is going to be looking at content across several platforms; the challenge is maintaining editorial standards across platforms,” Mr. Pearlstine said. “How do you encourage a different voice? How much do you demand a brand be consistent?”

Here, Ms. Abramson’s split editorial personalities—the three books she’s written are a feminist history, a nonfiction book of political and judicial analysis and a puppy memoir, after all—could give her the fluency to mesh the Times’s disparate operations.

It helps to have a family full of digital natives. After Ms. Abramson bought her daughter a Times subscription, Ms. Griggs told her to cancel it a year later. “I was just recycling it,” Ms. Griggs said. She’s part of the generation that consumes all its news online or on mobile, she added. She and her boyfriend, who works in technology in New York, generate ideas and feedback for Ms. Abramson. She thinks engaging the online community in a savvier way should be a priority for the Times.

“The comments right now are sort of static,” said Ms. Griggs, “My mom knows I feel that way.”

The job also involves defending the Times’s expensive operations to the Sulzbergers, who have not seen a dividend on their Times shares since 2009. According to an Adweek report from the annual meeting last month, some shareholders are getting antsy.

This all still seemed a distant concern on Thursday evening, when The Observer bumped into Ms. Abramson deep in the winding cave of the 42nd Street-Port Authority subway station.

At that moment, Ms. Abramson was an national trending topic on Twitter, but she walked through the station unnoticed, accompanied by her predecessor, Mr. Keller.

They were on their way to dinner.

kstoeffel@observer.com

Since Portfolio is a general interest business magazine, Mr. Raines offers a one paragraph history of journalism, perfect for our blog-addled Google-dummed age:

The closest Mr. Raines got to Mr. Romenesko was an iChat window, "Since he inhabits a virtual world, it was a virtual interview." Eight years ago, New York's Simon Dumenco actually spent some time in Mr. Romenesko's presence, back when Mr. Romenesko was still hosting his media news site independently. Here's how Mr. Dumenco described Mr. Romenesko's operation circa the turn of the Century:

We understand he's since moved and upgraded to Wifi.

Mr. Oreskes, who is currently the editor of the Times-owned International Herald Tribune, has been working in one capacity or another under the Times umbrella for the past 27 years. Before he took his position as executive editor of IHT in 2005, he was the deputy managing editor of The Times for Bill Keller, and an assistant managing editor under Howell Raines before that.

At the AP, he'll become the managing editor of the wire service's U.S. News department, a newly created department there.

Update! AP has confirmed our report with a press release. Here it is:

AP names Michael Oreskes Managing Editor for U.S. NewsThe Associated Press today named Michael Oreskes, executive editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris, to be AP Managing Editor for U.S. News.

In the newly expanded position, Oreskes will oversee all U.S. news from The Associated Press, from state bureaus to national political coverage, for both U.S. and world audiences.

“We’re delighted to have an editor with Michael’s breadth take up this important new position in the AP,’’ said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor. “His experience at every level of coverage, in every format for audiences in the United States and across the globe, makes him uniquely suited for this position.”

Oreskes, 53, has served as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune since 2005. Previously, he was deputy managing editor of The New York Times, supervising television and Internet content. During this period, he won three Emmy awards and a DuPont award for documentary television.

The appointment was announced Thursday by Mike Silverman, senior managing editor, to whom Oreskes will report. He joins AP in July and will be based at AP headquarters in New York.

"With his background as metro editor and statehouse bureau chief, he will be a strong advocate for the strong state reports that make AP unique,” Silverman said. “And with his Washington experience added in, he can help our journalists connect the dots between the federal government and the states and citizens it serves."

Oreskes will oversee the work of AP’s bureaus in the 50 states, which will be reporting up to him through four regional operations being created in 2008 and 2009. He’ll also supervise the work of the Washington bureau, the news service's largest domestic bureau, and AP's national feature, beat and investigative reporters.

Oreskes will be one of four managing editors, joining John Daniszewski, in charge of international coverage; Kristin Gazlay, in charge of business news and training, and Lou Ferrara, in charge of sports, entertainment and a merged multimedia and graphics department.

From 1997 to 2001, Oreskes was Washington bureau chief for the Times, and previously served as metropolitan editor and city editor. He started with the Times in 1981, as a metropolitan correspondent. Before that Oreskes worked for the Daily News in New York City. He is a graduate of City College of New York.

About The AP

The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the largest and most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP.

How did Mr. Matthews feel about the piece?

According to freshly unearthed and highly anecdotal evidence: not so well!

To wit: In the current issue of Portfolio, former Times Editor Howell Raines tells an anecdote about recently attending an awards dinner in Washington D.C., thrown by The Week.

Along the way, Mr. Raines runs down the roster of attendees, which, he writes, included Chris Matthews who was "reeling that evening from having just read an early copy of ‘that fucking article' about him in the Times Magazine."

More from Mr. Raines:

Under Raines, who served approximately 21 months before resigning in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, the paper's news pages published seven Pulitzer-winning entries.

In more than twice that span of time—53 Pulitzer-eligible months as executive editor—Keller has published six Pulitzer winners.

This tally omits prizes won by op-ed columnists, who report to the editorial page editor, not the executive editor.

Four of the Raines Pulitzers were awarded for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, which occurred shortly after Raines took office. For the biggest news story of Keller's tenure, the ongoing war in Iraq, the Times has yet to win a single prize.

The math follows:

September, 2001: Howell Raines named exec editor (after Joseph Lelyveld, who served from 1994-2001).

2002

Four 9/11 Pulitzers, including two for photography.

One for commentary to Thomas Friedman. (Discounted: the editorial page does not report to the executive editor.)

One for Barry Bearak for Afghanistan at war. (As the war began, technically, on October 7, 2001, credit goes to Raines--although Bearak's assignment to Afghanistan took place previously.)

One for Gretchen Morgenson (After September 11, 2001, she split her time between her beat and 9/11 reporting; the bulk of the work took place under Lelyveld, and so goes the credit.)

2003

One for Clifford Levy for "Broken Homes." (Series ran in April, 2002; credit to Raines.)

June 2003: Raines resigns; Lelyveld named interim executive editor. July 2003: Bill Keller named executive editor.

2004

One for David Barstow and Lowell Bergman on auto workers. (Series ran in January 2003; credit to Raines.)

2005

One for Walt Bogdanich on rail crossings.

2006

Three. (Including Kristof for commentary--credit to no executive editor.)

2007

One.

2008

Two.

TOTAL PULITZERS PER EXECUTIVE EDITOR

RAINES: 7

KELLER: 6

]]> The New York Times under executive editor Bill Keller still has fewer Pulitzer victories to its credit than during the short-lived reign of his predecessor, Howell Raines.

Under Raines, who served approximately 21 months before resigning in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, the paper's news pages published seven Pulitzer-winning entries.

In more than twice that span of time—53 Pulitzer-eligible months as executive editor—Keller has published six Pulitzer winners.

This tally omits prizes won by op-ed columnists, who report to the editorial page editor, not the executive editor.

Four of the Raines Pulitzers were awarded for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks, which occurred shortly after Raines took office. For the biggest news story of Keller's tenure, the ongoing war in Iraq, the Times has yet to win a single prize.

The math follows:

September, 2001: Howell Raines named exec editor (after Joseph Lelyveld, who served from 1994-2001).

2002

Four 9/11 Pulitzers, including two for photography.

One for commentary to Thomas Friedman. (Discounted: the editorial page does not report to the executive editor.)

One for Barry Bearak for Afghanistan at war. (As the war began, technically, on October 7, 2001, credit goes to Raines--although Bearak's assignment to Afghanistan took place previously.)

One for Gretchen Morgenson (After September 11, 2001, she split her time between her beat and 9/11 reporting; the bulk of the work took place under Lelyveld, and so goes the credit.)

2003

One for Clifford Levy for "Broken Homes." (Series ran in April, 2002; credit to Raines.)

June 2003: Raines resigns; Lelyveld named interim executive editor. July 2003: Bill Keller named executive editor.

2004

One for David Barstow and Lowell Bergman on auto workers. (Series ran in January 2003; credit to Raines.)

2005

One for Walt Bogdanich on rail crossings.

2006

Three. (Including Kristof for commentary--credit to no executive editor.)

2007

One.

2008

Two.

TOTAL PULITZERS PER EXECUTIVE EDITOR

RAINES: 7

KELLER: 6

]]> http://observer.com/2008/04/in-pulitzer-race-bill-keller-does-not-yet-catch-howell-raines/feed/ 0 jhanasobserver http://observer.com/2008/03/in-iportfolioi-raines-fears-for-the-itimesi/#comments Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:12:14 -0400 http://observer.com/2008/03/in-iportfolioi-raines-fears-for-the-itimesi/ John Koblin http://www.observer.com/2008/03/in-iportfolioi-raines-fears-for-the-itimesi/ Howell Raines is back.

The former executive editor of the New York Times has written his first media column for Portfolio, and it's about—surprise!—the New York Times. It will appear in the April issue that hits newstands later this week. (Online this morning.)

The article, titled "Murdoch v. the Times," examines the paper's vulnerability, particularly in the wake of Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Wall Street Journal.

"There is no more important question in American journalism than the future of the Times, and I don't think the newspaper or the journalistic profession is taking Murdoch in particular or the takeover issue in general seriously enough," he writes.

Mr. Raines' worst fear is that "Murdoch or some other unsuitable purchaser will then buy the Times."

The column is not an analysis of the paper itself--Bill Keller isn't mentioned once--but of how the paper's "bulletproof' ownership structure under Arthur Sulzberger Jr. might not really be bulletproof at all.

"Could dozens of restless heirs—plus the already unhappy owners of class-A stock—exert enough pressure on six Sulzberger relatives to put the company in play?" he asks.

That's because there are all sorts of already well-documented problems: aggressive hedge funds; anxiety within the family (or so there must be); Wall Street; Rupert Murdoch. The threat is real enough that he runs down a series of much-speculated scenarios: the paper might be purchased by Google, or Michael Bloomberg, or Donald Graham, or it could go private.

Mr. Raines is an outsider, so the article resembles nothing like the 20,000 word column that he wrote for the Atlantic in 2004, in which he exhaustively relayed inside anecdotes and detailed how the Times was essentially a broken newspaper when he took the helm in 2001. Nor does he offer any analysis of the paper's recent business moves, or an assessment of its players. (In the 2004 article, Mr. Raines praises CEO Janet Robinson, but we don't know how he feels now).

Instead, he airs familiar concerns that the paper might fall to outside pressure and that it "seems way too relaxed" about the Murdoch-threat, though he doesn't explain how they could register more urgency. He calls the Sulzbergers "one of the most admired publishing families ever" and downplays any particular joy at seeing his old boss, Arthur Sulzberger, struggle.

"When Arthur Sulzberger Jr. fired me in 2003, I took quite a beating from media reporters on journalistic issues," he writes. "Since then, I've watched Arthur get roughed up by the financial press for his business decisions. Any tendency toward schadenfreude on my part has been offset by two powerful factors. As a Times pensioner, I want the paper to make money under
public-spirited owners. As a reader, I believe a Murdoch takeover of our last independent national newspaper would be a disaster for the trustworthy reporting on which our civic life depends."

He leads his piece by relaying an ancedote about when he met Rupert Murdoch in 2002. He was talking about the the Bancroft-owned Wall Street Journal and Mr. Murdoch gave him this instruction: "You ought to hit them where they live. Go after hard business news and beat them on their strength."

That's what Mr. Raines--and basically everyone else--figures what Mr. Murdoch will do to the Times. He concludes with this rather colorful (and slightly off-putting) image: "For now, the thing to watch is the newspaper war promised by Murdoch. If his heavy spending on the Journal has the side effect of further depressing Times stock, a lot of cousins [the family] could start looking over their shoulders and fingering their calculators."

Though the award-winning but ratings-deficient Discovery Times channel is a 50-50 partnership with Discovery Communications, Discovery currently controls four of the seven seats on its board. According to sources at The Times and the Discovery Channel familiar with the negotiations, The Times wants to add an eighth member.

Or perhaps Times executives may decide not to have a television station at all.

Later this month, The Times will reach a window in its three-year-old deal with Discovery: It will have an option to sell back its stake, for which The Times paid $100 million.

If The Times chooses, the company may exercise that option to sell, or negotiate for a future opt-out window. The Times’ option was first revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and was reported last week by the Rocky Mountain News.

In November, Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. told Charlie Rose that Discovery Times “is our big step into television,” and the paper’s strategy was to “create a television leg as well.”

But now, a senior Times staffer described the discussions going on inside the paper this way: “What kind of video should we do? Is it the stuff for the Web? For podcasts? While the documentaries are wonderful and they win prizes, are they worth the money?”

Three years ago, The Times created its Internet video unit. Lawrie Mifflin, The Times’ executive director of television and radio, oversees both Web and television operations.

Last year, The Times closed its in-house television-production company, located in the West Village. According to Times sources with knowledge of the decision, the paper decided that the facility could only be profitable if the unit produced a large volume of programming.

This week, on April 3, The Times unveiled a redesigned Web site, where Web video is given prominent presence. The Times currently produces 14 or 15 Web videos a week, which range in length from two minutes to as long as seven minutes. The Times’ Web site currently holds close to 300 video clips.

“I’ll be glad to talk to you about this after this Discovery thing is resolved one way or the other,” said deputy managing editor Jon Landman, who oversees the paper’s Web operation.

According to Times and Discovery sources, the channel is profitable, but viewership remains scant. While Discovery Times is available in 36 million households, the channel resides in the exurbs of cable land. Currently, Nielsen doesn’t release Discovery Times’ ratings.

“We have a position on the dial you couldn’t find with a Sherpa,” one Times staffer said.

One report in BusinessWeek last January put Discovery Times at 27,000 nightly viewers.

In February 2006, according to Nielsen NetRatings, The Times’ Web site had 12.7 million unique visitors.

“We couldn’t be happier with the Discovery Times channel,” said Discovery spokesman David Leavy. “The New York Times has been an excellent partner; journalistically, the channel has created wonderful programming. The channel is profitable, and the brand has a lot of strength after three short years.”

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis declined to comment.

The Times and Discovery Communications are being sued by 5,000 medical patients in New Jersey. Gerald Clark, an attorney with the New Jersey firm Lynch Keefe Bartels, represents the plaintiffs. He said that Times camera crews for Trauma: Life in the ER filmed his clients without consent and violated medical-privacy laws.

Already, Mr. Clark said, The Times has settled with two individual plaintiffs. The judge did not uphold the national class-action suit, and the case is awaiting an appeal with the New Jersey Appellate Court in Trenton.

“As you know, the plaintiffs sought a national class action, which was defeated,” said Ms. Mathis. “They were only able to get a class in New Jersey, which we are currently appealing. We believe we will be successful with the appeal.”

In 2001, a Times deal to partner with NewsHour and air a nightly newscast on PBS was not consummated. In 2003, it was reported that The Times flirted with CBS’ 60 Minutes II; also in 2003, The Times and ABC News discussed a potential partnership to cover the 2004 Presidential campaign. Neither venture materialized.

Last summer, The Times tested a pilot 60-minute newscast called Times Seven, which the paper co-produced with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The test was cancelled after four episodes.

Though the award-winning but ratings-deficient Discovery Times channel is a 50-50 partnership with Discovery Communications, Discovery currently controls four of the seven seats on its board. According to sources at The Times and the Discovery Channel familiar with the negotiations, The Times wants to add an eighth member.

Or perhaps Times executives may decide not to have a television station at all.

Later this month, The Times will reach a window in its three-year-old deal with Discovery: It will have an option to sell back its stake, for which The Times paid $100 million.

If The Times chooses, the company may exercise that option to sell, or negotiate for a future opt-out window. The Times’ option was first revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, and was reported last week by the Rocky Mountain News.

In November, Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. told Charlie Rose that Discovery Times “is our big step into television,” and the paper’s strategy was to “create a television leg as well.”

But now, a senior Times staffer described the discussions going on inside the paper this way: “What kind of video should we do? Is it the stuff for the Web? For podcasts? While the documentaries are wonderful and they win prizes, are they worth the money?”

Three years ago, The Times created its Internet video unit. Lawrie Mifflin, The Times’ executive director of television and radio, oversees both Web and television operations.

Last year, The Times closed its in-house television-production company, located in the West Village. According to Times sources with knowledge of the decision, the paper decided that the facility could only be profitable if the unit produced a large volume of programming.

This week, on April 3, The Times unveiled a redesigned Web site, where Web video is given prominent presence. The Times currently produces 14 or 15 Web videos a week, which range in length from two minutes to as long as seven minutes. The Times’ Web site currently holds close to 300 video clips.

“I’ll be glad to talk to you about this after this Discovery thing is resolved one way or the other,” said deputy managing editor Jon Landman, who oversees the paper’s Web operation.

According to Times and Discovery sources, the channel is profitable, but viewership remains scant. While Discovery Times is available in 36 million households, the channel resides in the exurbs of cable land. Currently, Nielsen doesn’t release Discovery Times’ ratings.

“We have a position on the dial you couldn’t find with a Sherpa,” one Times staffer said.

One report in BusinessWeek last January put Discovery Times at 27,000 nightly viewers.

In February 2006, according to Nielsen NetRatings, The Times’ Web site had 12.7 million unique visitors.

“We couldn’t be happier with the Discovery Times channel,” said Discovery spokesman David Leavy. “ The New York Times has been an excellent partner; journalistically, the channel has created wonderful programming. The channel is profitable, and the brand has a lot of strength after three short years.”

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis declined to comment.

The Times and Discovery Communications are being sued by 5,000 medical patients in New Jersey. Gerald Clark, an attorney with the New Jersey firm Lynch Keefe Bartels, represents the plaintiffs. He said that Times camera crews for Trauma: Life in the ER filmed his clients without consent and violated medical-privacy laws.

Already, Mr. Clark said, The Times has settled with two individual plaintiffs. The judge did not uphold the national class-action suit, and the case is awaiting an appeal with the New Jersey Appellate Court in Trenton.

“As you know, the plaintiffs sought a national class action, which was defeated,” said Ms. Mathis. “They were only able to get a class in New Jersey, which we are currently appealing. We believe we will be successful with the appeal.”

In 2001, a Times deal to partner with NewsHour and air a nightly newscast on PBS was not consummated. In 2003, it was reported that The Times flirted with CBS’ 60 Minutes II; also in 2003, The Times and ABC News discussed a potential partnership to cover the 2004 Presidential campaign. Neither venture materialized.

Last summer, The Times tested a pilot 60-minute newscast called Times Seven, which the paper co-produced with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The test was cancelled after four episodes.

Lord Norman Foster’s Hearst Tower is open for business: On Monday, about 60 Hearst I.T. employees moved into the 10th floor. They are the first of the company’s staffers to populate the gleaming 46-story shaft thrusting up out of the landmarked Art Deco façade of William Randolph Hearst’s media headquarters on Eighth Avenue.

“We’re telling people, ‘When you pack your boxes, you can leave your old ideas about architecture behind,’” Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer said.

That’s not all they’ll be leaving behind. Between the building’s energy-efficiency rules and its high-toned aesthetics—waterfall-accented 10-story atrium, in-house gym, 164-seat screening room—staffers have been given strict guidelines over what items will and will not be permissible in the new space. Furniture, wall-hanging artwork, desk lamps and a host of appliances are all banned. Items that don’t make the cut will be shipped to staffers’ homes.

Mr. Luthringer confirmed the moving protocols.

“We’re telling people we’ll be providing state-of-the-art computers, so they don’t need to bring TV’s, VCR’s, DVD players, devices with speakers and fax machines,” Mr. Luthringer said. “Also space heaters, fans, microwaves, coffeemakers, wall clocks—with the idea being that all of this is going to be provided in some way or other.”

If Hearst staffers are confused over what is and isn’t allowed, the company has appointed “move captains” for every magazine and division at the company to answer questions. Each “move captain” will direct groups of 25 employees.

Beginning next month and continuing through August, Hearst will be gathering the rest of the 2,000 staffers from its 18 magazine titles—currently spread across nine Manhattan locations—and move them into the building, starting from the 10th-floor and working up.

Mr. Luthringer said the staggered move dates have been scheduled so as not to interfere with the magazines’ closing schedules.

—G.S.

When Lewis Lapham appeared at the April 4 luncheon in his honor at Michael’s, the now-emeritus editor of Harper’s radiated satisfaction. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was on his way out of Congress, under the weight of scandal, and Mr. Lapham could scarcely contain his glee as he spoke about malfeasance brought low at last, a rare victory for the forces of light in an age of—

Actually, that whole paragraph was fabricated before lunch. When in Rome—and we are in Rome, as Mr. Lapham has written. Or Weimar Germany, or the Mayan empire. Some place, at any rate, that Mr. Lapham can peer at through the fat end of a telescope, with haughty distance. Hence the 2004 episode in which Mr. Lapham expressed his disgust with the speeches at the Republican National Convention, in an essay published before the Republicans had, technically speaking, convened.

Harper’s, Mr. Lapham said in his post-lunch remarks, “puts a great premium on the singular voice. What people have learned from their own experience.” This was at the actual luncheon, hosted by the American Society of Magazine Editors, in the Garden Room at the rear of Michael’s. Mr. Lapham’s cantankerous writing persona was not in evidence. Nor did he dwell on the day’s headlines. He is the editor-to-be of Lapham’s Quarterly, a historical publication.

Still the essays will keep coming, with Harper’s under the supervision of Mr. Lapham’s chosen successor, Roger Hodge. There were enough major editors in attendance to make one table around Mr. Lapham: GQ’s Jim Nelson, Glamour’s Cindi Leive, Sports Illustrated’s Terry McDonell. No New Yorker, no Atlantic. Mr. Hodge, in angular spectacles, sat at the next table over. In the far corner was a spray of pink blossoms.

Mr. McDonell had introduced Mr. Lapham by recalling the Lapham of yore, one of a class of dashing correspondents who seemed to have “a lot of new friends in their lives.” The phrasing brought knowing chuckles from the alpha table.

Mr. Lapham told stories. His anecdotes are polished to pleasing smoothness, like stones from a river. He told the one about his first assignment, writing 4,000 words on a flower show and having it cut down, draft by draft, to a paragraph: “And that was my introduction to the art of editing.” He told about having the Saturday Evening Post and Life magazine die out from under him.

In a press release for the event, Mr. Lapham was quoted as saying he had “arrived at the point where I would prefer to read Machiavelli than listen to Karl Rove.” Mr. Lapham told the story of how he moved up at Harper’s, in the wake of Willie Morris’ resignation. “On Monday, I was a contract writer who had been in the office twice,” he said. “On Tuesday I was the acting managing editor.” Morris’ memoirs fill in some of the other details.

The hubbub of the main Michael’s dining room drifted in. Mr. Lapham talked about the glories of writing and the rise of the curious notion that working for the press was a respectable trade. It had not always been thus. He told the story of a cocktail party on the Upper East Side, long ago, when he was a reporter for the Herald Tribune—“the happiest kid in the world.” A beautiful girl had asked him what he did for a living. He told her.

“She looked at me with indulgent, faint contempt,” Mr. Lapham said. “And she said, ‘Oh, what are you going to do when you grow up?’”

The editors laughed. “It wasn’t a classy profession,” Mr. Lapham said, “and it wasn’t particularly in love with itself.” And that was O.K.

“Now,” Mr. Lapham said, “you have to have a fur coat.”

Mr. Lapham sat down and tucked into his chocolate cake and ice cream.

—Tom Scocca

Next month, Howell Raines’ memoir, The One That Got Away, lands on bookshelves. It will be accompanied by a national media blitz that begins with a Today show appearance. But until then, Mr. Raines isn’t giving much away.

On the afternoon of March 24, the former New York Times executive editor spoke to a roomful of Nieman journalism fellows at Harvard University in an off-the-record seminar at the Lippmann House in Cambridge. While the Nieman Foundation runs off-the-record seminars for its 23 fellows, Mr. Raines’ talk was given special off-the-record status: Nieman fellows were told by e-mail before the Friday-afternoon session that no outside guests were permitted at Mr. Raines’ chat.

Off the record or not, Mr. Raines remained tight-lipped during the talk about his Times career and his unceremonious exit from the paper following the Jayson Blair debacle. Inquisitive Nieman fellows were told by Mr. Raines that if their questions were about The Times, they would have to wait for the book.

“We all hoped to get some insights into his tenure at The Times,” a fellow said. “We hoped that would occur. It just didn’t. He was so guarded, a lot of us were frustrated.”

Nieman curator Bob Giles said the terms of Mr. Raines’ off-the-record session were no different from those of the outside lecturers who are brought in during the academic year to speak to Nieman fellows.

“We set up our seminars on an off-the-record basis to encourage people to come in and be open and candid with Nieman fellows,” Mr. Giles said. “This is not a press conference—no one will be writing anything out of these discussions.”

—G.S.

Former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines--who was forced out of paper after the Jayson Blair debacle--is now getting out of the West Village, too (and, as far as we can tell, out of New York City entirely).

Mr. Raines recently sold his West 11th Street townhouse for $3.5 million, according to city deed-transfer records.

Mr. Raines--who purchased the house in 1996--has been renting it out for some time, while spending his days in his Pennsylvania country house.

Last May, actress Christina Applegate reportedly rented the 18-foot-wide townhouse while performing on Broadway.

Mr. Raines hadn't yet responded to an email asking about the sale, as of this posting.

- Michael Calderone

Newly appointed Atlantic editor James Bennet does not yet have a working phone line. Reached by phone, Miller declined to comment on her Atlantic assignment. "I just got back from the Middle East," she said. "I can’t talk right now."

--Gabriel Sherman