Huffington Post legacy hire Matthew Palevsky defended uniformly innocuous Timesman Sewell Chan's Twitter honor.

Nation correspondent Ari Melber captured the sad sadness of a sad politican's sad press conference.

Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl felt the consequences of auctioning herself off to the highest bidder.

Chicago Tribune leisureblogger Bill Daley became the guy who complains about the copier.

Fox DC anchor Brian Bolter felt a false sense of relief.

Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets — or send us more Twitter usernames.

Key warnings from the the guidelines, from standards editor Craig Whitney:

Be careful not to write anything on a blog or a personal Web page that you could not write in The Times —­ don't editorialize, for instance, if you work for the News Department. Anything you post online can and might be publicly disseminated, and can be twisted to be used against you by those who wish you or The Times ill — whether it's text, photographs, or video. That includes things you recommend on TimesPeople or articles you post to Facebook and Digg, content you share with friends on MySpace, and articles you recommend through TimesPeople. It can also include things posted by outside parties to your Facebook page, so keep an eye on what appears there. Just remember that we are always under scrutiny by magnifying glass and that the possibilities of digital distortion are virtually unlimited, so always ask yourself, could this be deliberately misconstrued or misunderstood by somebody who wants to make me look bad?

He's talking about us! Although we wish everyone well. We hear that the paper may be cracking down on Twitter use by staffers soon. So now's the time to look at some the NYT's most prolific Tweeters! Not surprisingly, most of them are prolific reporters, as well, and just can't stop writing things, every minute of every day. It's truly amazing.

Superhuman metro reporter Sewell Chan's Twitter page is uniformly innocuous.


Dealbook wonder boy Andrew Ross Sorkin's is livelier, but still disappointingly uncontroversial. Lots of live-tweeting and extra Dealbook-like commentary.


Young media obsessive Brian Stelter is an outrageous link-Tweeting machine. Truly incredible. Not too controversial, though. You work too much, Brian!


Magical trend specialist/ metro lord Jennifer 8. Lee hears the WSJ may be clamping down on Twitter! She also reveals that the NYT newsroom is patrolled by drunken thieves!



Finally, King of All Media David Carr is wild with the Twitter! He Twitters whatever he wants! Maybe enough to give Craig Whitney palpitations? It's all so charming, though! He has a big personality! Fight the power!


So overall there's not much that we would find scandalous there (more drunk Twittering from the whorehouse, people, thx), but probably enough to make Craig Whitney want to tell people to be quiet. Keep an eye out for a sudden NYT clampdown on newsroom Twittering. Then everything can get back to boring again.
[Disclosure: I'm Facebook friends with Carr and Stelter, hopelessly compromising my objectivity.]

From: joe sexton Subject: A Call to Arms (and legs and ears and eyes and hearts and minds) Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2007 11:53:58 -0400

To: The Staff From: Joe Sexton

City Room is now a little more than two weeks old. It has produced a lot of variety, been visually interesting, and, shit, readers seem to like it. We've had a mix of breaking news, enterprise and feature material, links to other sites, reader service and discussions. More than 175 posts in the earliest days with 1,613 reader comments (the Empire Zone only had 11,000 over its 14-month life span).

We've been told a post about a brief blackout on the East Side was the most-read blog post on the Web site that day. We told readers about the blackout and then we told them it was over before radio and TV even had any information. We also had the first announcement of Bloomberg's plan to drop his Republican affiliation, and covered the story as it unfolded in a partnershp with the National Desk, the Caucus blog and the Continuos News Desk.

But it's not all about breaking news. We've unveiled some regular features including Jonathan Hicks's column Politics 5B from the front lines of borough and neighborhood political fights, Maria Newman's column on news from summer getaways from Cape May to the Hamptons, a Taking Questions feature that drew a huge reader response on the issue of congestion pricing and other transportation issues.

Jim Dao, Patrick and Sewell have been having breakfasts with several reporters, but it's worth reiterating that the project needs the help of the whole Metro staff. If you want to find out more, reach out. But expect that Sewell and Patrick and Jim and Lexi and I will be reaching out to you. We need breaking news updates; supplemental material that didn't make its way into the paper; off-the-beat observations and anecdotes; links to primary sources like Web pages and PDF's that can help the reader who wants more context; and more. Sometimes it's as simple as a phone call or email to us.

City Room clearly gives readers a chance to talk with each other, but also to us; we want to use City Room to generate tips, story ideas, angles of inquiry.

City Room, to state the important and the obvious, helps to raise the Metro staff's profile and promote the work of our reporters; because many people end up on our blogs through search engines or other blogs, City Room can extend the Metro report's reach to readers who don't get the print edition or regularly read NYTimes.com.

I close with some highlights, and with a last encouragement to get involved.

- "The Rising Cost of Meat on a Stick" ­ a photo-only blog post by Uli Seit, showing an Astoria vendor's sign warning customers about the $2.50 souvlaki

- Dalton Walker's post on yoga in the middle of Times Square, along Willie Davis's photo, is one of the main featured items on the main home page for several hours, drawing more than 130 comments

- Video journalist Geoff McGhee, accompanying Willie Neuman into the subway tunnels of Brooklyn, shows readers the perilous sounds and images that track workers experience daily.

- Ken Belson tracked down Takeru Kobayashi, the world's hot-dog-eating champion, and interviewed him — in Japanese, no less — on his mysterious jaw pain (a wisdom tooth turns out to be the culprit) for a City Room exclusive.

- Kim Severson, from Dining, quickly dissected a City Hall press release about trans fats and explained why the elimination of the frying medium from 83% of the city's restaurants isn't so surprising — or such a big deal — after all.

- Al Baker wrote up a transcript of his fascinating interview with Ray Kelly over the old wooden police sawhorses, which we published in full.

- Al Baker also took a story that probably wouldn't have made the paper — the theft of a silver reliquary, containing a saint's ankle bone, from a Greek Orthodox cathedral in Astoria — and turned it into a neat blog post.

- Jo Craven McGinty did a quick analysis of Census data and discovered that the Orthodox village of Kiryas Joel has been the state's fastest-growing community this decade — which in turn became a story for the print edition the next day.

Joe

"It was like Dorkfest 2007. The newsroom, filled with empty desks which were lousy with dustballs, contained about a hundred pizzas, 500 bottles of beer, and hundreds of journalists, editors and photogs sweating it out to the sounds of the 70s spun by an in-house DJ. The greatest talents in the newspaper world were cutting loose in the only way smart people can: very earnestly. As the news clerks played a drinking game in the back—special guest appearance by a serene-looking Bill Keller—dancing bodies stole the attention away from the photo slideshow of the newsroom in its heyday playing on the wall.

"Keller's memo called for no speeches, no toasts, and, mercifully, there weren't any. Sewell Chan was there, happy and relaxed for a change, as was the always-adorable Pat Healy, who should be a star in Washington as the campaign heats up. Everyone was there, except it was so crowded that it was nearly impossible to make the rounds, so some hopped up on desks and filing cabinets and shimmied to the beat.

"But the best was Joe Sexton, Metro Editor, who is always a relaxed, jovial presence in the newsroom, always encouraging social outings, and he's a huge hip-hop fan, so nobody could hold a candle to his moves. He was on that dance floor for at least a couple hours, drenched in sweat. Nobody made a fool of themselves, and nobody was too drunk, I don't think. Some took the rare opportunity to travel to the 14th floor and see Sulzberger's private quarters, replete with his bedroom and shower, now empty."

We're pleased to announce the upcoming Diversity Awareness Series schedule. The Diversity Awareness Series was developed to provide a forum for our employees and leaders to learn about the many facets of diversity.

We are excited to have New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn participating in a conversation with Sewell Chan, bureau chief of the Metro desk's "City Room." Ms. Quinn is the first woman and openly lesbian individual to hold this important post.

Several Diversity Study Groups for managers (with new articles) are scheduled and the popular "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: Diversity & Empathy Development" session, Part I is back as well as the new "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes " Part II is being offered.

You can find the Diversity Awareness Series schedule as well as other diversity related events and resources by clicking on the Diversity button on the Intranet homepage. Please enroll for the diversity study groups and the "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" sessions.

Diversity Speaker Series
Christine Quinn: Speaking Out
Monday, June 11, 2007
[REDACTED]

Hear New York City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn the first woman to hold this post, and the first lesbian in conversation with Sewell Chan, the bureau chief of the Metros desks City Room." For those who can't attend in person, listen in by phone. Dial in (800) xxx-xxxx, participant code - xxxx.

Diversity Study Groups - for managers
These groups, co-facilitated by the Internal Consultants, create an environment in which topics related to diversity in a business environment can be introduced and discussed. New thought provoking articles will be read by participants prior to each session.

There are several objectives of the Diversity Study Groups. The objectives are to:
network with people from other departments
get exposure to articles and information you might not normally read
listen to peoples perspectives on various diversity topics
contribute to the discussion
learn something about yourself

Diversity & Empathy Development Sessions
Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes Part I - Diversity & Empathy Development
Participate in a session where we will look at the connection between authority, stereotyping and discrimination in school age children and its impact into adulthood. This program will include a presentation and discussion on the relationship between empathy and diversity in addition to a review of the PBS program, A Class Divided. In 1970, an innovative teacher, Jane Elliott, attempted a daring experiment on racial stereotyping and its impact on young children.

The bulk of Keller's presentation (which was followed by a Q&A) had to do with the Times' transition to "journalism on the web" and the evolving "web-print relationship." Newsroom editors, he said, "need to be better informed about features that appear in their sections. They don't necessarily have to know how to put up a slide show or put up a graphic, but they need to know who does what." Excellent plan!

He also spoke about the "gradual reallocation of resources from print towards digital" and copy editors being moved to the day side, so that there could be a "greater flow of fresh quality edit material." We imagine a chill swept quickly over the room! Then he brought up two of the Times' stars: Sewell Chan, who has become a "full-time, online Metro journalist"; and the comely Ariel Kaminer, who—assuming we heard this correctly—is becoming a "cultural impresario." Snarf.

"We can't let our reverence for quality become a straitjacket in new media," he warned. "The web environment is different... We can offer guidance but we cannot insist on the same control we exercise over print."

That, it would seem, might be a difficult lesson to absorb. But Keller hurried to make his charges feel better! "Online and in print, we are the New York Times," he intoned, not entirely convincingly.

He spoke of the new building: "Pioneers have already settled in our gleaming frontier." He brought up some of the complaints that the "pioneers" have had, including fire alarms having a mind of their own and motion-sensor lights not working. "There have also been reports of a rat sighting," he said, though he hurried to say that it was unsubstantiated. "The mice aren't scheduled to move in until June 15." Laughter! Relief!

"I implore you to be versatile," he implored. "It's an immense improvement over our venerable, but cramped and deteriorating, building on 43rd Street. The company is heading for a long future."

Part of the future includes a reduction in the size of the paper at the end of the summer. "Folks, it ain't that different," he said. There's that warm Bill Keller we all know! "It's an inch and a half narrower. There's no dramatic makeover of our design." In contrast to the Wall Street Journal's redesign, he said that the Times would "absorb the change without a great deal of fanfare." He said the changes include a display page for the foreign desk, and limiting the jumping of A1 stories to other sections.

While the paper will be adding pages, the "actual reduction of the newshole is about 5 percent," he said, which will give editors "some incentive about being a little more ruthless about throwing stories back for cuts. Our stories are too often too long... The 1200 word stories could be 800 or 900. There are editors at a Page 1 meeting boasting that a story is only 1400 words." (Good thing Sewell is only writing for the web, then.)

Then it was time for questions. Someone asked how the Times plans to make money off the web. "I heartily believe we will," Keller said. "How, is a lot more complicated." He talked about Wall Street, and doing PowerPoint presentations. "There's a phrase they use in drug and alcohol rehab—'fake it til you make it.' That's basically what we're doing."

Another person asked about Rupert Murdoch's bid for the Wall Street Journal and how that might affect the Times. Keller seems to think that if Murdoch wins the bid for Dow Jones, he will invest in Bloomberg-type news. "I don't think we want to go into the newswire and business newswire service," he said. "It's not our strength. We can respond in a smart way by providing more of what we provide now, which is stuff that if you're interested in business, you have to read. Smart analysis, columns, news of that kind." He speculated that Murdoch might be interested in starting a magazine to go with the Journal. "He doesn't seem to like the Saturday Journal," Keller remarked. "We're pretty good at magazines. I'm quite confident that if he comes up with something we will be able to respond. There are a lot of people at the Wall Street Journal wondering if we're the last lifeboat in the ocean."

Someone asked whether the hiring of online staff would affect hiring or staffing the paper. "Mostly, no," Keller said. "The web creates openings for very specialized jobs. Sometimes you have to go out and hire them from other places. But in the reallocation of resources from print to digital, we're not talking about closing down print slots and opening up web slots."

And then someone asked about City Room, which is Sewell Chan's new project, and is basically a mini-New York Times, but online and only about New York. "The idea is that the New York Times is not giving up New York City... We're taking one of our most inventive and productive journalists and setting him loose. He will do all different kinds of news without any narrow portfolio." God help us.

folks,

i want this note to feel urgent. i considered using ALL CAPS to make the point. but i figured you would take me at my word.

we plainly have to do better at getting stories done earlier, and to the desk earlier. pete khoury made a calm and persuasive plea about this back at the metro lunches in late february. he is calm no longer. and i can hardly blame him. one of the benchmarks we had set — six stories to the desk by 5 p.m. — has been hit exactly three times in the last month.

look, i don't want to be a joyless scold/dork. but let me be clear: doing better is not an option; it is an obligation. part of our new job descriptions. doing better is essential to our future, and as such will be part of our annual reviews, backfielders included, me included.

i was moved to write not only because pete was in my face but because mike richard was in my sights. mike has spent this week helping us take the next step forward — bringing copy editors onto the desk in the morning, to start handling stories and to help with our multiple web efforts. his presence should excite us; mostly, given our performance, it has haunted us. mike deserves better; pete deserves better.

so, a coupla things. we will start formally marking stories on the daily budget that we want to the desk by 5. editors will be responsible for notifying reporters that they have one of those stories. and reporters will be responsible for delivering them, absent catastrophe.

second, this whole enterprise would be assisted by us all doing better at an even more basic benchmark: being at work, ready for duty, at our assigned time. like 10, and no later. of course, there are exceptions, too many to list. but, regrettably, there have also been too many instances of late where folks have not met this most fundamental obligation for no good reason. enough already.

i hope i have not lost friends in writing this note. but i do hope i have got your attention. and i hope it is not lost on you — and i am repeating myself here — that there's a pretty obvious good in this for you all. like getting home. to your families or beaches or ballparks or bartenders.

it should also be said that quite a fair number of you have worked your tails off to make things better and more efficient. clyde haberman, just by way of example, has embraced our offer to file his column early when he can, so we can post it on the web the day BEFORE it appears in the paper. he's been great. you all have that greatness in you.

joe

Out of Brooklyn, Endlessly Blogging [Empire Zone/NYT]
Earlier: Our Obsession With Sewell Chan