Inside the NYT - and Everywhere Else - with Semafor's Max Tani
Summary
Media reporter Max Tani discusses the New York Times' controversial story on Zoran Mamdani's college application, exploring the paper's internal divisions and external criticism. He reflects on his career path to Semafor, working with Ben Smith, and the economics of modern media. The conversation delves into the fragmented media landscape, the 'fragmentation election,' how news is consumed ambiently, and the lessons learned from covering the Trump presidency.Episode description
You’re probably a normal person, so you didn’t spend your holiday weekend talking to people at the New York Times about a local politics story that some people didn’t like.
But that’s Max Tani’s job: He’s Semafor’s media reporter, which means he’s supposed to burrow into the paper of record — as well as other important media institutions — and tell you what’s going inside and why it actually matters.
So we spent a bunch of time in this chat talking about Tani’s story about a controversial-at-least-online Times story . In part because I find the whole thing fascinating (I’m not normal). And in part because it gives you a pretty good idea of what being a media reporter entails in 2025.
Also discussed here: When is something a tweet, and when is it a story? Why is this a “weird moment in media”? And why was 2024 the “fragmentation election?”
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