El Lobo Returns Home
The battle over America’s wolves goes back centuries. In an excerpt from the forthcoming “Wolf Nation,” a journalist follows the release of a single family into the wild.
journalism
A collection of 74 issues
The Messenger
From “Truth Trucks” to viral videos, Operation Rescue head Troy Newman’s word is his sword.
Press Rewind
What one journalist learned by vicariously sitting in on David Carr’s master class—with only his teacher’s reputation, extant syllabus, and students’ recollections to guide the way.
White Guys (Friendship Never Ends)
An alphabetical update to important stories that have fallen off the front page, from the existence of Atlantis to the Spice Girls' decline.
What Think-Piece Writers Get Wrong About Lobotomies
The web is full of pundits looking to turn every topic into think-bait. One writer commits himself to thinking much, much deeper.
Binge Reading Disorder
The typical American consumes more than 100,000 words a day and remembers none of them.
Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy
Before he was America's favorite philosopher comic, he was just another comedian out on tour. And she was the journalist he wanted to meet.
The World According to Brian Williams
A look back at the dethroned NBC Nightly News anchor’s storied history, in his own words.
Like Pushing an Elephant Into a Volkswagen
Writers who haven’t quit their day jobs, who cram in the writing hours around full-time work, discuss juggling office life, family, and creativity.
The Law of the Instrument
More than 200 letters to the editor, op-eds, and editorials from newspapers across the US reveal a country divided on who should be allowed to vote.
Sarah, You Can Drive My Car
Updates to news stories that have slipped off the front page. This week: male birth control, Sarah Palin, hydraulic fracking, the Beatles, and more.
Some Facts About the Listicle
The bread and butter of online journalism, epitomized by lists like “The 25 Most Kimye Things That Have Ever Happened,” got its start in a 19th-century column in the New York Times.
Lean Into a Croissant Doughnut
Brief updates to news stories that have slipped off the front page. This week: schoolgirls in Nigeria, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, Josh Hartnett's career, and more.
Water From Elephants
Humans have kept elephants for thousands of years, longer than we've domesticated chickens. Yet the great animals’ capacity to cry for freedom comes as a shock.
The Absolute Minimum
Highlights from a reading of 200-plus letters to the editor, from newspapers in all 50 states, to determine what Crazy America thinks about raising—or lowering—the minimum wage.
This Is How I Post
Over the past decade, social media has made us all big communicators, but we’re giving off more noise than signals. An argument for the handwritten note.
The Cantina Scene
Returning to America after five years in the Middle East calls for a no-sleep jaunt back to Beirut for drinking, partying, and tying up loose ends.
Essaying Through Life
A youthful pledge to become an essayist gets lost.
The Least Likely of Objects
Dreams of a Matalin-Carville romance tempt a young Washington journalist covering the death of a dictator to cross party lines in pursuit of love.
Poor Sochi
Our Russia hand submits a roll-up of all the corruption, crises, ill-preparedness, highways paved with French luggage, and other #sochiproblems surrounding Putin’s graft-gutted Winter Olympics.
Do Not Endure Verbal, Emotional, or Physical Abuse
Offered an opportunity to help a father reach out to his young daughter, a writer agrees to assist. But the challenge isn’t as simple as grammar and commas.
A Moving Experience
Travel is mostly boredom—and if you’re not bored, you’re pretty sure that everyone else is having more fun. Selected for “The Best American Travel Writing 2014,” the woes of professional travel writers.
Dancer in the Dark
An American ballerina makes headlines when she says the Bolshoi Ballet wanted a bribe to let her perform. The company denies her accusation. But a small library in Virginia knew about it first.
Once Upon a Time in the Middle East
Driving from Lebanon toward Syria, across the Saudi Arabian desert to Dammam, in a taxi among the refugees of Beirut—quickly becomes the Wild West.
Feeding the Beast
What should readers demand from their reporters? Find the shadows. Examine the complex problems. And captivate us. Journalists from Slate, Deadspin, ProPublica, NPR, and more on what readers should expect.
Explaining the Inexplicable
Readers of science reporting often find their heads spinning. Some of the science reporters do, too. A look at how the best of them make inexpertise an asset.
North Korea Won't Be Liberated in a Day
North Korea's prison camps are roundly condemned as heinous, but remain untouched. When an idealistic young reporter takes on a mission to help shut them down—bearing Hemingway and Vollmann in mind—he winds up on the doorstep of the Embassy of the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.
The Boulevard of Broken Bones
Even through the prism of life in the tumultuous Middle East, the U.S. in an election year looks divided, fractious, frustrating. But there’s still a ray of hope—in Queens.
The Type We Do Here Is for Self-Defense
Continuing our series of randomly calling people around the U.S. to find out what's going on in their towns, this time we focus on the Olympics—how do folks who come from the same communities as America's Olympians feel about their star athletes?
Jonestown, Naipaul, and Me
A boy asking for money. An editor yelling at him to go away. An author, a rising star, dying young from a heart attack. A group of followers ending their lives at the wish of a single man.
A Coalition of Dunces
Last week, the Pulitzer Prize board refused to give its prestigious award to any novel published in 2011. Something is clearly broken. We roused our commentators from the Tournament of Books, Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner, for their remarks.
When the Town Stops Burning
For 50 years, a fire has been raging in mining tunnels beneath Centralia, Pa. With the town mostly evacuated long ago, what’s left? Mostly journalists and other outsiders looking in.
Here People Keep Christmas Lights Up All Year Round
The United States is much too big for the nightly news to cover thoroughly. Continuing our series of randomly telephoning people around the country—from Santa Claus, Ind., to Brilliant, Ala.—to find out what’s really going on.
Diary of a Post-Adrenaline Junkie
Some decisions are best made heedlessly, based on the chance for an epic story—and some people think like that all the time. A report on what it’s like to slide down a volcano on a piece of sheet metal at 55 mph.
Russell Banks
Our man in Boston sits down for the sixth time with Russell Banks to discuss his latest novel, the movie business, Mitt Romney, the emigration of investigative journalists, and why it's wise to wait until your 70's before writing about obsessive love.
The Demands of Cold Blood
When a crime reporter is told an outlandish account, his first obligation is to establish the facts. But when the story turns out to be a conspiracy, it can knock his sense of duty until it cracks.
On the Beat
In a North Carolina mountain town, the cops are good old boys, the sheriff’s a teddy bear, and the chief conducts drug raids in his head. All of which spells nothing good for a Mexican caught with a carful of guns, or for the town’s “Cop Beat” reporter.
Geraldine Brooks
Our man in Boston sits down with the Pulitzer-winning novelist to discuss Australian literature, Harvard's (neglected) charter to educate American Indians, and those residents of Martha's Vineyard who say no to Chardonnay.
Nothing Is off the Record, Because I’m Not Coming Back
After 26 years writing Harper’s Notebook, Lewis Lapham talks about history, essays, and modern journalists.
A Pledge to My Readers
As a reader, you have a choice of which books, magazines, and newspapers to consume. I’m committed to bringing you the finest in the written word.
The Fabulous Papers
Journalism is dying, journalism is thriving, the end of the world is nigh--there's a lot to be excited about. A report on the newspapers that prevailed by hook or crook in 2009.
The Savior of Newspaperdom
Unless the newspaper honchos invent some brilliant ideas, the broadsheet is dead. A last-ditch brainstorm.
2009 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence
We maintain a list throughout the year of our favorite new websites--the ones that entertain and inform our wired lives. Presenting the 2009 Eddys, celebrating the best of a fleeting medium.
Out of the Old Hotel
As the New York Times kills its City section this month, New York loses a fine way of knowing itself. Paying tribute to all the Joseph Mitchells and Joe Goulds.
I Dream in Malcolm Gladwell
A new sport is taking hold, one that involves marshmallows, sticks, and fire.
2008 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence
The internet: There sure is a lot of stuff on it. In the course of a year of browsing, we've discovered some favorites that deserve some sort of award--in fact, this sort of award. Presenting the 2008 Eddys.
Our Champion
When the New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp died recently from lung cancer, America lost one of its most riveting writers--one of the best critics we've ever had, and quite possibly among the worst.
2007 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence
We read and see a lot of websites, and though most are terrible, some are extraordinary.
I Write Camille Paglia's Next Column so She Doesn’t Have To, Vol. 1: The UFC
For those who still don't grasp the subtext, reifications of Anna Nicole, Ultimate Fighting, and Eddie Murphy.
The Day After the Morning After
Our story thus far: editor Drew Barrymore, who has been in an on-again, off-again relationship with reporter Vince Vaughn, is friends with copy editor Keira Knightley (who is smitten with sportswriter Matthew McConaughey)--that is, until a night of tequila shots.
High-Fives So Hard They Hurt
January in Minnesota can be harsh, though rarely more than in 1999, when a Vikings playoff victory slipped away. From his vantage point next to a stack of commemorative newspapers, one man almost saw what could have been.
Being Christopher Hitchens
Living as a once-Trotskyist megaforce, now war-toting superstar can take its toll. Particularly when your personality subdivides into pro wrestlers.
The Lost Weeknight
Dismayed at the idea of collaborating with Vince, Drew needs cheering up. McConaughey orders the shots. A new episode in our fanfic series.
Stakeout
Vince and Drew's romance fizzles when he begins stalking her neighbor. And back at CM HQ it's reflecting poorly on his work, while everybody else is busy filming segments for their new website.
Bring Me the Head of Mickey Rooney
Staff changes are announced at the world's most famous magazine, and Drew is handed the axe and told to swing it.
Welcome to Celebrity Magazine
In a world where everyone is famous, who's going to do the reporting? Working at a glossy is never easy--especially not with this cast. The first installment in a new series.
News Gone Wild
Pop quiz for the journalism students in the audience: What's an editor to do when her reporter is assaulted and the attacker, whom the reporter strikes back, turns out to be the story's subject?
2006 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence
Web Geeks Unite! was the original slogan when The Morning News launched in 1999, and though our mission has changed, the spirit is undiminished.
My SXSW Diary
South by Southwest is really about the music, so forget about all the parties and cab rides and breakfast tacos. That's exactly what our correspondent told us when she handed in her expense report. Here's what (she said) happened between the bars.
McClellan at Home
Battered and bullied in the press room, morning, noon, and night. What's a normal, average press secretary to do when he just wants to spend some quality time with his wife? As it turns out, things aren't much better there.
2005 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence
Web Geeks Unite! was our original slogan when we launched this site in 1999, and while the tagline has changed, the spirit is undiminished.
2004 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence
The web is an awfully tangled place, but there are jewels in the strands. Presenting The Morning News 2004 Editors' Awards for Online Excellence, where advanced technology, top-notch prose, and pictures of cats are equally admired.
Barking at the Gate
The White House Correspondents Association dinner is DC's biggest night--politicos mix with editors mix with celebrities, all very realalcoholik. It's also among the lowest points of journalism.
Ronald Reagan and Reading Proust
In a town of A-list-worship and ever younger, hotter scribblers, the New Yorker Festival is a two-day freak-out for all things scribed. Our reporter braved the lit-sters for every reading he could schmooze his way into, including the now-infamous Wolfowitz riots.
Another Roadside Attraction
The Washington Post's new free newspaper Express is targeted to illiterate youngsters with wallets. A report on the difficulties of selling young and hip.
The Facts of Life
Fact-checking: It's not an easy job, and it's not without its faults. Which is why it wasn't any feat of genius for Stephen Glass or Jayson Blair to crack the system.
Mess With the Bull, You'll Get the Horns
The hazing at Glenbrook North High School and that other story about disregard for journalistic propriety can find judgment in the college classroom.
Among the "Unsavvy"
Being published in the New Yorker has long been a fantasy for many writers, and the magazine's recent change in the fiction chair appeared to offer more hope for the underpublished. Appearances, however, can be deceitful.
This Is the [Best]...Article...of the Summer!
Ever been suspect of the reviews that accompany movie ad posters? You probably have good reason. A look at the true origins of those reviews.
The Illustrierter Bacillus
While looking through his parents' attic our writer finds the May 14, 1942, issue of the Nazi party propaganda paper Illustrierter Beobachter. Nobody has any idea how it got there. A look between the pages.
Man and the Lad Mag
Today's man has some very real problems, and the magazines he's reading may be a big reason why.
Typography in the Sun
When people applaud or boo the newly risen New York Sun, it’s usually for political or editorial reasons. Rarely does anyone mention the paper’s design, a noteworthy if nostalgic broadsheet on the newsrack.
Nothing Like the Sun
New York's new daily paper The New York Sun was launched two weeks ago with great expectations, brio, and fanfare. So far we've seen a lot of wire stories, copy errors, and sloppy writing.
Investigating Tragedy
In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the responses they have instigated, we tried to read and learn as much as possible about the events that occurred and what they caused: herein are links to the information we found helpful.