Students visit The New York Times’ offices
The Media Living Learning Center students visited New York City on a networking and experience trip over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Jan. 15-18. During the trip, they met with alumni and toured the offices of New York’s famous media sites.
By Austin Faulds
It was MLK Day morning, and we were standing in front of The New York Times building, waiting for our late tour guide, graphics and multimedia editor Larry Buchanan. The rushed symphonic sounds of the Big Apple filled the frigid air, while we rubbed our hands quickly together like shamans making fire, and all I could think was “This better be a damn good newspaper.”
Boy, were my prayers answered, but I didn’t immediately recognize it. In fact, I spent half of the visit in confusion. I have a romantic, and frankly archaic, view of the newsroom. Where was the pulse? Where was the machine-gun fire of keyboards, the tiles paved with breaking hearts and stories, and the air filtered with the smoke of epiphanies? Why is everything so quiet?
Those were the pestering thoughts blitzing my mind until I entered the awards room, where anyone questioning the brilliance of the Times quickly shut up. Before us were every article and photo deemed worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. No one spoke while we all gazed at history incarnate right before our watering eyes: tragedy, victory, thievery and discovery.
There is beauty to be found behind those sturdy walls and impervious windows. Even though the Times building is fairly new, the history and prestige of some of the best journalism in history lingers on like some wise old ghost. Visiting the Times building is like visiting Gettysburg or the National Mall. It’s a landmark full of captivating tales – some of them good, some of them bad, but all worth knowing.
Read more student reports from the Media LLC’s experiences in New York.