Â
I worked for the Associated Press for nine years, and when I left I said, ‘I don’t want to do this wire service thing again.’ And when we went on the Internet I felt like I was having flashbacks. CAM: How different a skill is it to work in TV versus print?
ARS: I’ve enjoyed experimenting with different forms, whether it’s writing in the paper, writing a book, dealing with film, or doing TV. I’ve found that TV is another fascinating, very different medium. It’s obviously more instantaneous; there’s a lot of thinking on your feet. You’re not only trying to get an answer, you’re trying to get an answer quickly. For someone like me who’s focused on Wall Street and mergers and acquisitions, it’s allowed me to stretch myself. And also, I think Peter’s right; there is a personal connection on television that I’m not sure ever truly happens in print, in that viewers see you and think they have some relationship with you. There’s tremendous value to that, when you become their trusted source.
PC: A lot of people won’t even know who wrote an article; they don’t look at bylines. But you can’t not look at somebody’s face. Print people tend to hate the fact that every survey shows that TV is more trusted as a news source—but that’s the way the world is. People trust the ones they see.
CAM: Do you ever get recognized on the street, and if so, what’s that like?
ARS: I do, probably as a function of “Squawk Box” or back when I went on “Charlie Rose” or all the promotion around Too Big to Fail two years ago. If someone says, “Hey, love your book,” or “Love reading you,” it feels great. I’ve had a couple of awkward encounters where someone comes over to you and you think you should say hello to them because you know them, but you don’t, and then you don’t really know what you’re supposed to do.
PC: I don’t get recognized because I’m not as famous as Andrew. But that’s a problem for another day.
CAM: Andrew, what was it like to have your book made into an HBO movie starring the likes of William Hurt and Paul Giamatti?
ARS: Fantastic. There’s not much to say.
CAM: You’ve got to be kidding. Not much to say?
ARS: I mean, amazing, overwhelming, crazy. It’s one of those things where you pinch yourself.
CAM: You have a cameo, right? You’re a reporter in a White House press briefing?
ARS: I do. I did a whole method acting class. [Joke.]
CAM: OK, easy question. Is there an economic future for the news business?
ARS: I think that there’s actually going to be a long, viable journalism business. Do I think it’s going to exist like a magazine or the physical newspaper does? Not necessarily. But I think that’s fine. PC: I feel the same way, and a few years ago I was pessimistic. People think that if the current exemplars are fading away, the business won’t be there. But it’s growing in new places, like furry little mammals replacing the dinosaurs. And unlike in biology, some of the dinosaurs are going to transform themselves and continue on.
ARS: We hope.
CAM: In terms of an economically viable system, how do you feel about online paywalls like the one the Times established this year?
ARS: I’m a believer in the model. What I think is smart about how we’ve approached it, not to sound like an advertisement, is that it’s a permeable wall. Readers like to go to the newsstand and flip through the paper before buying it, so I like the idea that you get twenty articles for free and then we say, “Enough already.” It’s like getting the tsk-tsk from the man at the newsstand after you’ve been standing there too long.
PC: “This is not a library.”
ARS: Exactly. So I think that the approach is the right one, and it should help us economically over time. It’s probably too soon to cheer aloud, but all signs are in the right direction.
CAM: Given that, what advice would you give to the Cornell student who asks, “Should I go into journalism?”
ARS: It’s still a tough business. But if you love it, and you have a passion for it, you should do it. The most successful people I’ve encountered in journalism are people who from day one loved it, breathed it, lived it. You know, I always say I haven’t worked a day in my life. I think this is one of the coolest things you could ever do.
PC: Yeah, I agree. I said, “They’re going to pay me to do what I’ve been doing for free here at Cornell all these years?”
CAM: So in a nutshell: what do you love about your job?
ARS: You get paid to be curious, to ask questions of some of the most interesting people in the world. Occasionally, a TV segment or an article can actually have influence, can change the narrative of a discussion or even the national conversation. On television especially, I’ve seen the market react to something said on CNBC literally instantaneously. Same for the Web.
PC: The curiosity, yes. But the part that makes it different from, say, being an investigator is then you get to write about it, and that to me is equally pleasurable.
CAM: Speaking of curiosity: is there a question you’ve always wanted to ask each other?
PC: I want to ask Andrew how he got the scoop on Kraft, but he won’t tell me.
ARS: It’s not that exciting. It was at five o’clock in the morning.
PC: Nothing happens to me at five o’clock in the morning. I’m sleeping.
ARS: You’ve got to be awake at five o’clock in the morning. It’s where the action is.
PC: Oh, man.
ARS: I have a question for Peter. Do you think that Cornell University—your academic career—set you up to do what you do today?
PC: No, clearly not. I used to joke that I was an Ithaca newspaper editor who was taking classes at Cornell. I took some great classes, but I probably didn’t suck as much of the juice out of Cornell as I could have if I’d really been a full-time student. If I had to do it over again, I might have majored in econ instead of history. I wish I’d taken more econ, more statistics. Maybe a little computer science.
ARS: I always think if I went back to school now, I’d learn much more.
PC: I know I would, because I’d be a much more serious student.