"Arthur may be hard pressed to find vegetarian food amid all the barbecue joints, but he’ll have no trouble finding stories," Mr. Berke wrote in an internal memo.

As it turns out, how hard pressed Mr. Sulzberger is to find vegetarian food amid all the barbecue joints is the story.

Today he published "A Vegetarian's Struggle for Sustenance." It begins:

IN an ideal world, vegetarians would be built like camels. Not humpbacked, of course, but able to sustain themselves through long stretches by tapping stored energy reserves, like previously consumed soy products.

But after the first three dinners in my new hometown, where I moved from New York to cover the Midwest for this newspaper, even this veteran vegetarian was flagging.

Someone airmail this man some Angelica Kitchen!

Not yet?

O.K., fine. Then join us for a look back at some of the week's more notable developments. To wit: A new taste for raciness at Granta, "neck-snapping" changes at The Times, some vaguely unsettling news about Facebook, and, of course, an item or two about Governor Paterson's ongoing (can you believe it's still ongoing?) drama. Plus: Anthony Weiner, back in the day (but not one single mention of Eric Massa!).

Oh, and happy 25th birthday, Internet. Let's hope you get your shit sorted out by 30.

Click for slideshow >

Two editors will leave the department—Suzanne Daley, the outgoing editor, and Dean Murphy, the deputy editor—and, according to several sources, up to four additional editors will also leave the desk and are currently looking for other jobs at the paper (David Firestone, a deputy; Jack Kadden, another deputy; Joan Nassivera, assistant national editor; and Suzanne Spector, the Web editor). 

By The Times’ standards, that’s an upheaval.

“Head-snapping,” said one reporter.

“Highly unusual,” said another Times source.

It’s standard practice for a new department head to assemble his own team. But the fact that Mr. Berke is on the verge of replacing roughly half the editors on the national desk less than a month after he was named editor—he hasn’t even formally started the job yet—is notable for a newsroom that has had so little movement in recent years.

“It is normal for someone taking over a major desk to build their own team. I did it myself, though at a much slower pace,” said Ms. Daley, the outgoing national editor, who will be a European correspondent reporting from New York.

Generally it takes many months for a department head to put together that team. This time, it’s been “on a swifter timetable than usual,” acknowledged Mr. Berke in an email.

Still a week away from filling the editor’s desk, Mr. Berke has already been given greater latitude than most new department heads, due to his close relationship with Bill Keller and Jill Abramson, sources said. Mr. Berke was most recently The Times’ assistant managing editor. Among other jobs, he was the traffic cop for the front page.

He has been a favorite of the top bosses since he took over his job in 2005. “Rick is trying to make a strong impression, but he’s coming off the masthead and getting more help than most department heads would have had,” said one senior editor. “He’s gotten the permission to do it quickly.”

“Yes, he’s moved quickly to assemble his team,” said Mr. Keller in an email. “From his masthead perch, he’s had a chance to study the entire newsroom, so he didn’t have to do a lot of additional reporting or auditioning to know who he wanted.”

In mid-February, when Mr. Keller announced that Mr. Berke was taking over the national desk, it surprised many. The Times gossip mill kept churning out the name Dean Murphy, Ms. Daley’s deputy, as her likely successor.

Mr. Keller had other plans. He conducted no formal search and gave the job to Mr. Berke.

In a memo announcing the change, Mr. Keller said that the “amazing” Rick Berke “has done it all—except, before this, being the head of a major news department.”
Though Mr. Berke’s experience is deep—he worked in the Washington bureau for 19 years, rising from night editor to national political correspondent to Washington editor before joining the masthead in 2005—he has never run a department. And though it could appear like a demotion to step down from the masthead to work on the national desk, there are likely greater factors at play.

Indeed, it’s widely believed that Mr. Berke’s move to the national desk means he is being groomed for a bigger job. In less than four years, Mr. Keller will turn 65, the mandatory retirement age for executive editor. Ms. Abramson is among a very short list of candidates to replace Mr. Keller. Mr. Berke, who worked alongside Ms. Abramson in Washington for more than a year when she was the bureau chief, is among a very short list of candidates who could work alongside her again as managing editor.

“He needs this experience to be Jill’s number two,” said one source.

With the national desk in his control now, Mr. Berke is essentially going back to school to get the degree he’s never had.

And so far, here’s what he’s working with: Dean Murphy, Ms. Daley’s deputy, who was passed over for the job, will take the deputy spot in the business section under Larry Ingrassia. David Firestone said that Mr. Berke asked him to stay on, but he was still undecided.

“There are a lot of changes going to the national desk, and I haven’t decided if I’m going to stay,” said Mr. Firestone. “I was asked to stay, but I can’t say at this point what’s likely to happen next.” (Sources said that Mr. Firestone may take a job on the editorial board.)

Mr. Berke told Jack Kadden, Suzanne Spector and Joan Nassivera, all editors on the national desk, that they would have to find new jobs at the paper, sources said. Mr. Berke, often described as one of the nice guys in the shark tank that is The Times, is allowing them the time to find new jobs before booting them from the desk, the sources added.

And in the next week, Mr. Berke is expected to make more announcements: formally naming Mr. Nagourney, a former colleague in Washington and a close friend, the Los Angeles bureau chief, giving him the plum assignment that he’s been due for some time; naming Lisa Tozzi, a popular staffer on the Web, as one of his deputies; and bringing in Marcus Mabry, the enterprise editor for the business section, to be an editor. 

The seeds are being planted quickly. “There are no grand designs behind the move,” said Mr. Berke in an email, discussing his new job. “It grew out of some blue-sky discussions among top editors, and I’m really excited about the challenge.”

“We made Rick national editor because we were confident he’d be a great national editor,” said Mr. Keller. “He’s journalistically ambitious and his enthusiasm for great stories is infectious.”

jkoblin@observer.com

MORE: Former Bookforum editor Chris Lehmann joins Yahoo News >

It was Monday night at the TimesCenter and Mr. Berke made this announcement on a well-lit stage in a dark auditorium as he prepared to interview his two bosses, Times executive editor Bill Keller and managing editor Jill Abramson, at an event called "Behind the Scenes at The New York Times."

Paying $20, a few hundred Times readers showed up for this first-time stab at putting a little color into The Times' gray masthead.

For some weeks now, the top Times editors have seemed to want to bring in all the publicity they can muster. Last week, Bill Keller had his first A1 byline in 14 years when he traveled to Iran; Mr. Keller and Mr. Berke made a widely panned Daily Show appearance nearly two weeks ago; and Mr. Keller appeared on This Week and Reliable Sources on Sunday.

As the Times editors attempt to sell their newspaper, it appears they've stumbled to a conclusion (that they seem to have resisted) that is essential these days in media circles: sell yourself.

And how did Mr. Keller and Ms. Abramson sell themselves when they opened the doors to their house last night? As accomplished and humble former star reporters who never dreamed that one day they'd be editors; as people with powerful rivals and friends; as editors who work in tandem with a quirky, Oscar-and-Felix distinctiveness.

With all this human interest in the air, it was 63 minutes before we heard a word about The Times' current economic crisis, and even then, the topic was barely touched. Instead, we learned all about Bill and Jill and how they're people, just like us.

As a result, few news advances were made last night (one little bit of news, however, involved David Rohde's abduction, which you'll find below), but there were several interesting things we learned, like how Jill Abramson first bonded with future best friend Maureen Dowd after they laughed at hearing the word “penis.”

Here are 10 things we didn't know before about The Times:

10. Every morning Bill Keller reads The Times first, then The Journal; every morning Jill Abramson reads The Times first, then The Journal.

9. Bill Keller reads the print editions first; Jill Abramson reads online first.

8. Bill Keller has no use for CNN anymore; he wants news, not opinion.

7. The first thing Jill looks at in The Times every day is the Arts report, and then Arts, Briefly. Then she turns to the Business section.

6. Bill Keller considered David Remnick his biggest rival in his reporting days.

5. When Jill Abramson was an editor at Legal Times, one of her first hires was Terry Moran, at a salary of $11,000.

4. Bill Keller is optimistic about the future; Jill Abramson works in "the department of dark worries"

3. Even though they had a "professional shotgun marriage," both claim that they work in perfect harmony; Bill is the "soul of intellgience," said Jill Abramson, and she said she was the "chatty Cathy."

2. Jill Abramson first bonded with her self-described best friend at The Times, Maureen Dowd, when they covered the Clarence Thomas hearings (Abramson for The Journal, Dowd for The Times). When they heard the word "penis ... uttered in the very stately Senate caucus room," they looked at each other across from the press table and "We couldn't believe this was happening!" A friendship was born.

1. Bill Keller on David Rohde: "I was relieved this morning when I talked to David and he said, 'By the way, thank you for not making a public event out of this. We heard the people who kidnapped me were obsessed with my value in the marketplace. If there were a lot of news stories, they would have held me much tighter."

UPDATE, 1:12 PM: Bill Keller also appeared on NewsHour last night to discuss the kidnapping.

"It's always been one of the higher aspirations in the business to work for The New York Times," said Bill Keller in his opening remarks to The Daily Show's Jason Jones.

That's true! But that's also where the segment started going inevitably downhill for The Times. Mr. Keller said that The Times feels like "in many ways" the last ship afloat.

"But your lifeboat is made of paper?" shot back Mr. Jones.

The most cringe-inducing performance was Mr. Jones' interview with Rick Berke, The Times' assistant managing editor.

"Why is aged news better than real news?" said Mr. Jones.

"I've never heard the term aged news," said Mr. Berke, giving off an air of superiority, even if it was a feeble attempt at being funny.

Mr. Jones said "aged news" is the news of newspapers; it's old. Not necessarily, said Mr. Berke.

"Give me one thing there," said Mr. Jones as Mr. Berke looked at the paper, "that happened today."

Mr. Berke looked bewildered and put his hand to his face. It was the money shot. The pause was too long and painful.

Most definitiely, Mr. Berke was taking a stab at being funny. He tried to be the snooty straight man to Mr. Jones' backward, Huffington Post–loving boor. That backfired. Mr. Keller actually admirably volleyed with Mr. Jones, but Mr. Berke looked like a wonky, holed-up and out-of-touch Times editor, and to a large portion of Mr. Stewart's audience, there's no place more out-of-touch than The New York Times.

Rick Berke, The Times’ assistant managing editor, sent a memo to the newsroom this morning to ask reporters and editors to come forward with any ideas to cut costs. The ideas can be small (cut down on the amount of paper used in the newsroom?) or big (add a pay-wall to nytimes.com?).

Budget matters have always been the responsibility of editors. Mr. Berke himself addressed this in a recent chat on the paper's Web site when he said, "But top editors—by necessity—are now part of the conversation about our financial well-being to a degree that would have been unheard of not so long ago. (Ah, the days when we could be purists who never even wondered about ad revenue for the quarter. . . . )”

Editors have traditionally been able to protect reporters from such matters. But not anymore.

“If you have an idea—any idea—that you would like to share with the news and/or business management, forward it to me and I will make sure it gets to the right person at the highest levels,” wrote Mr. Berke in today's newsroom-wide memo. “If you prefer, Bill said he'd be happy to take your emails directly. And if you are interested in attending one of our upcoming brainstorming lunches, let me know.”

“The significance of this is the newsroom is now involved in a way it hasn’t before,” one Times staffer told The Observer. “They’re being asked for ideas.”

Which could work, or might not. It’s one thing when you have a magical circle of a trusted colleagues; it’s another when Mr. Berke, along with top editors Bill Keller and Jill Abramson, are ready to open up closed-door lunches and hear dozens of people throw ideas at them.

One thing is clear: By the end of the month, Mr. Keller and the top Times editors will need to submit a budget proposal to Mr. Sulzberger, which may include a smaller newspaper and pay cuts across the board (one staffer said there was a sense of “resignation” that the 5 percent budget cuts will go through for the Guild).

Here’s Mr. Berke’s memo to the newsroom:

To the Newsroom:

Many of you have asked how you could share your  thoughts and ideas about ensuring a healthy financial future for The New York Times.

There is an active channel from the newsroom to the business side. Several committees, with representation from news and business, are actively exploring various money-making pursuits.  And every week, newsroom representatives have been attending breakfasts held by the company's business leadership to hear what is on their minds.

And to make sure all corners of the newsroom have a voice, at the start of the year, we began organizing regular lunches with newsroom employees at all levels to offer their money making  (and saving) ideas -- large and small -- for the Times. This is all about ways to better capitalize on our journalism.

These sessions are always attended by Bill, Jill, other members of the newsroom masthead, and a representative from the business side. We have had four lunches already, and they have been inspiring; a reminder of not only the depth of wisdom and cutting edge ideas in the newsroom, but of the devotion we all have to the continued success of The Times.

Summaries of the lunches have been forwarded to the business side. The ideas have ranged from ambitious multi-paged business models (in one case by a Harvard MBA who is a reporter here) to practical cost-saving notions like cutting back on paper in the newsroom.

Tom Carley, the senior vice president of planning, said many of the ideas had already been under consideration by the business side, but that the lunches have helped give his staff sharper focus. He said some of the ideas from the lunches have been rejected. But the encouraging news is that there are several suggestions that the business staff is now actively considering.

After the most recent lunch, Tom told me he appreciated the "intelligence and passion of the newsroom.''

If you have an idea -- any idea -- that you would like to share with the news and/or business management, forward it to me and I will make sure it gets to the right person at the highest levels. If you prefer, Bill said he'd be happy to take your emails directly.

And if you are interested in attending one of our upcoming brainstorming lunches, let me know.

Thanks.
Rick

Many media outlets--including us!--only have a handful of the Floor passes, so reporters have to trade off so the Floor Pass and the Hall Pass can circulate around. According to Rick Berke, assistant managing editor of the Times, who was wearing a perimeter pass, that's exactly what the paper of record is doiing. And Gail Collins, with her perimeter pass in hand, was wondering aloud who she could do a trade-off with.

At the beginning of the presentation, Mr. Nagourney discussed the recent endorsement of Rudy Giuliani by Pat Robertson as "freaky," "weird" and "a stunt." He also echoed a widespread criticism of Republican candidate Fred Thomspon, saying "I really think he's just not that into it."

At one point, Times assistant managing editor Rick Berke asked reporter Patrick Healy, who covers Hillary Clinton, whether the New York senator has forgiven him for the notorious A1 exegesis of the Clinton marriage he wrote last year. "No," Mr. Healy replied.

"She's never quite sure what questions are going to come out of my mouth," Mr. Healy continued. "We have these moments where her people have to assess beforehand, well is there anything you're going to spring on her?" For instance, will there be a "question on marriage for her in a health care interview."

"It's really complicated," he continued. "She thinks of The Times as her hometown newspaper and she also sees its readers as her people, by and large -- not only as New Yorkers, but also as Democrats around the country. So she cares a lot about everything -- what's on the blogs, what's on page 1. She can be very critical."

Referring to the crowds in Iowa, Mr. Nagourney noted: "The average age was about 64." You could say the same about last night's event. The discussion was endlessly promoted on WQXR, a favorite of the over-50 crowd, and the audience grew visibly irritated when it hit the two-hour mark. When Mr. Berke asked how many people in the audience read The Caucus, The Times' most popular blog, four people raised their hands.

Afterwards, salted peanuts and Blackstone wine was served for the few stragglers willing to stick around. Eventually, Mr. Berke and Mr. Healy, in separate groups, were the last Times staffers standing.

Full memo after the jump.

Date: Mar 12, 2007
Subject: Note From Bill Keller: New Time, Same Place
To: newsroom@ahot.nytimes.com

Folks,
We take a small step forward in our effort to reinvent the newsroom on Monday, March 19, when we move up the first Page 1 meeting of the day to 10:30.

It's not just the time of the meeting that's changing; it's the purpose. Instead of asking department heads to tell us everything they have for the front, we'll ask them instead to tell us about their best breaking news (or at least the best that they anticipate at that hour), their best enterprise and what they can put on the Web early, well before the 4 p.m. Page 1 meeting.

The goal of the early meeting is to think more about the Web and to make decisions sooner -- sooner for those of us on the masthead as well. We intend to decide Page 1 enterprise after the 10:30 meeting and to stick to our decisions (barring news, of course). We hope that will help department heads make earlier decisions as well. We can't know everything at 10:30, but we can know a lot, and of course we'll change our early plans as the news demands.

We expect that the IHT will move its Page 1 meeting to follow ours. And Rick Berke will come in earlier to work with Jim Roberts in getting the day started.

Susan Edgerley and Larry Ingrassia's pilot project in BizDay is already demonstrating that a little planning the night before and a little effort to move stories to the Web earlier can produce good results. And it's helping our print editions, too, by getting some non-breaking decisions made sooner. We hope this change in the meeting time will do more of the same.

Cheers,
Bill

Bureau chief Phil Taubman is scheduled to hold a brown-bag lunch meeting today to address the staff about Phillips' departure.

"There's a lot of confusion about what happened," a bureau member said. "People are upset."

Phillips was appointed to the position in October 2004, replacing Rick Berke, who moved to New York to become an associate managing editor. Bureau sources said that Phillips had clashed with Taubman in recent months.

According to bureau sources, the Times is seeking to reorganize the bureau, which has taken heat from New York in recent months for falling behind on stories such as the Washington Post's expose of "black sites" where the United States keeps detainees abroad.

--Gabriel Sherman