Inside-Story Documentary About The New York Times Opens Friday in South Florida

Tallahassee resident, corporate attorney, media consultant and sometimes-contributor to Sunshine State News Florence Snyder has a don't-miss entertainment feature in Sunday's Miami Herald. Have a look.

Snyder advances a new documentary, "Page One: Inside the Newsroom at The New York Times," by acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Rossi. The film was picked up for national distribution by Participant Media, the folks who took a chance on such award-winning works as "An Inconvenient Truth," "Waiting for Superman" and "Food Inc." As it turns out, each a fairly sizable hit, if not at the box office, certainly in the nation's social consciousness.

Rossi's "Page One" opens in South Florida on Friday.

Seems Rossi road-tested his film a week or two ago at the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) convention in Orlando. Snyder was right in her story when she called showing the film at the meeting an "acid test." Investigative journalists in America know a thing or two about their industry's legacy giants. But New Yorker Rossi, who grew up in New York, reading and loving both The Times and The New York Post, passed the test easily.

Snyder said Rossi told IRE he got his inspiration for the film from a 2009 story in The Atlantic called End Times. The Michael Hirschorn article asks, Can Americas paper of record survive the death of newsprint? Can journalism?

Snyder, who attended the IRE meeting and saw the film, reminds us of its Florida connection: "Floridians will be especially fascinated as Rossis camera follows (media reporter David) Carrs months-long investigation into creepy billionaire Sam Zells stewardship of the Chicago-based Tribune Co., which owns The Orlando Sentinel and The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel."
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