“I think that journalism is going to continue because we need it to have a democratic society. To say that it’s been undergoing change in the last 10 years is an incredible understatement, but it’s happening faster, and it’s requiring us to think really hard,” says Andy Rosenthal. Photo courtesy of the New York Times
For the 2014 Homecoming & Family Weekend, the traditional Alumni Symposium has expanded its reach. Now called Pioneer Symposium, the two-day event features interactive class sessions led by accomplished alumni and distinguished professors. Andy Rosenthal (BA ’78), editorial page editor of the New York Times, will take part in a panel discussion with Roger Birnbaum (attd. 1968–71), former co-chairman and co-CEO of Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and current co-chairman of Spyglass Entertainment, as they look at the key issues facing their respective industries.
Q: At the Pioneer Symposium, you are part of a panel discussing changes to business. What specific changes have you seen in journalism? Is it dying, as so many claim?
A: I think that journalism is going to continue because we need it to have a democratic society. To say that it’s been undergoing change in the last 10 years is an incredible understatement, but it’s happening faster, and it’s requiring us to think really hard. There’s more cooperation [now] between what we very pristinely used to refer to as “the newsroom” and people who do software development, people who do social stuff, people who do search engine optimization—all the kinds of business that goes into taking what we do and giving it out to the world.
Q: What advice would you give to a journalism student who wants to be a reporter?
A: It used to be that if you were a reporter you had to know how to use a pay phone, a pencil and a piece of paper. Now there are many, many more tools. You have to be able to understand social media. You have to be able to look at numbers that are useful and understand them. You need to be able to take pictures and to do video with your iPhone. You have to know how to use the Internet for research and source development. It’s not enough to be a good writer and to have a high level of curiosity.
Q: What brought you to the University of Denver in the 1970s?
A: I went to the University of Chicago as a freshman, and I hated it. So I dropped out of college. I got a job as a clerk at the Associated Press in New York because my dad said I could take a year off but I had to work. And on my third day there I knew that’s what I wanted to do—I wanted to be a journalist. And after about a year or so, the head of the AP said, “We love you, you’re smart, you really get it, but you’re 19. Just go away and get older. Go to college, and the day you graduate I’ll give you a job as a reporter.” I was trying to decide where to go, and a friend of mine was at DU and he said, “Why don’t you come here?” He said, “The place is fun, you’ll really like it. It’s sunny 300 days a year, it snows like a fiend in the mountains every year and you can ski your butt off, and it’s not full of itself like those East Coast colleges are.” And I decided, “I’m going to move to another part of the world.” And so I did. I moved to Colorado.
Q: And how was that experience?
A: I found a couple of professors I really liked and one who changed my life: John Livingston. He was the head of the history department. I was an American history major, and he changed my life. He changed the way I read, the way I wrote, the way I think, and he was incredibly inspiring. I took every course that he gave.
Q: What was your path from there to the New York Times?
A: After I graduated, the AP said I could work either in New York City or Denver, so I took Denver, and I worked there for four years, and I got offered a transfer first to New York, then to Moscow. I was in the Soviet Union from ’83 to ’87, then I joined the Times. I was in the Washington bureau as a reporter and covered the White House, then I became the editor in the Washington bureau, then I became the foreign editor, then I became the assistant managing editor for news, and my first day as assistant managing editor for news was Sept. 11, 2001. And then after two years I got offered a chance by the editorial page editor to be her deputy. I loved the idea, but I had absolutely no idea what the editorial page was or what it did. I read it, but I didn’t know from editorials. So it was a real change, and it’s been great. I’ve loved it.
Register for Homecoming & Family Weekend on the Alumni Relations website.