Two good Vanity Fair stories: The Times in Baghdad; Bloomberg News's dominance

Seth Mnookin was a busy man for the new Vanity Fair. Buy it for the Kate Winslet pictures, keep it for a couple of his stories (or just read them online).

One is on the New York Times's Baghdad bureau. As nearly all other media have pulled out of the country, the Times maintains a bureau with a yearly budget of $3 million. It's a great look at the interoffice drama of the staff (and their office is a country where more journalists have been killed than in WWI, WWII, and the Korean Wars combined), but it also explores what it means about the war when much of the country and media seem to have moved on from Iraq. One of my favorite lines is about the ludicrous notion that reporters only report from the Green Zone. Mnookin writes:
"During my time in Iraq, I heard diplomats and government employees ask reporters what was actually happening in the streets; never once did I hear the opposite take place."

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/12/nytimes200812

The other story is on Bloomberg News. I wasn't aware how big they've become. Journalists should definitely read this one as it appears Bloomberg might be the last media company hiring on a mass scale (aside from ESPN and college writers, of course). From the story: Bloomberg News has a staff of 2,300; 135 bureaus, including 30 in the Asia-Pacific region; they've added more than 300 people to the staff in the last few years. As other news divisions contract, they also plan to fill that void, with expanded arts (for things like book reviews which papers are cutting), and health reporting that some dailies are looking to use as they slice staff-written content.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/12/bloomberg200812

 

Re: Two good Vanity Fair stories: The Times in Baghdad; Bloomberg News's dominan

You mean they weren't reporting from the safety of Kuwait as a certain SJ poster said?

 

I thought it was Jordan.

 

Re: Two good Vanity Fair stories: The Times in Baghdad; Bloomberg News's dominan

You are correct. My mistake.

 

I went to the book store tonight to buy this issue and it wasn't on the stand.
suck it conde nast, I will now read for free the two articles.