New York Times’ Staffers Will Gather in Newsroom to Remember David Carr

Legendary media columnist died Thursday after collapsing at the newspaper’s offices

(Nick_Amoscato)

Less than 24 hours after his death, David Carr’s New York Times colleagues will gather in the newsroom Friday afternoon to remember their champion media columnist.

A Times spokesperson told TheWrap plans are to gather at 3 p.m. ET Friday to speak about their colleague, who died Thursday after collapsing in the newsroom.

Media competitors and friends have remembered Carr as a no-nonsense, old school champion of journalism; especially of the New York Times.

“I thought someone like David Carr was a god,” CNN’s Brian Stelter said. Stelter, who joined the Times at 22, expected Carr to whiz right past him. Instead, Carr took him under his wing.

“I also thought he would ignore me at best and crush me at worst. Well, in fact, he took me under his wing as he took so many young journalists under his wing and mentored us and instilled us a deep appreciation for all of the things we’ve been talking about in the past week: credibility and trust and voice in journalism.”

In The New York Times’ article about his death, the paper recognized Carr’s contribution to media reporting.

“More recently, however, he was best known for The Media Equation, a Monday column in The Times that analyzed news and developments in publishing, television, social media — for which he was an early evangelist — and other mass communications platforms. His plain-spoken style was sometimes blunt, and searingly honest about himself. The effect was both folksy and sophisticated, a voice from a shrewd and well-informed skeptic.”

TIME wrote about Carr’s “Grand Caper” on the day after his death:

“A lot of people will point today to Carr’s intelligence and talent — and properly so. He was wonderful at translating the patter of media sales-talk into the argot of real life, a skill that requires a lot of brain power. No one ever brushed past David’s b.s. detector mumbling ‘platform agnostic’ or ‘digital first.’ He understood — and embraced — the tidal power of social media without losing sight of virtues from the past,” the article said.

“David was a reporter, not a pundit; he explained rather than preached, and almost uniquely he saw the entire horizon. It wasn’t just journalism that was being shattered and remade on his watch. It was every form of human communication.”

Memorial service details are still being organized. Carr was 58.

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