The need for news, speed of tech and buzz of New York media hits hard in this docu film

Anyone with a passing interest in publishing and media should check out the incisive documentary film, Page One: Inside The New York Times. While focusing mainly on the story of one iconic newspaper, it broadly examines the struggle of one news medium while looking beyond the obvious face of that which is replacing it.

It’s a gripping 90-minute look behind the scenes of the most exciting media city in the world, stuffed full of archived footage and exclusive interviews with big players from across the publishing spectrum, including various Times figureheads, Gawker Media’s Nick Denton (NYC based publisher of Gawker and, closer to home, Gizmodo and Kotaku), highlighting key moments and in media and journalism over the last few years led by the likes of Steve Jobs, Arianna Huffington, Julian Assange and Rupert Murdoch.

Although it feels a little over focused on one or two eccentric personalities at times, on the whole this serves to convey the story really quite well, and whether you’re old school die-hard print or fresh-faced digital advocate (or more sensibly perhaps a mix of both), Page One is essential viewing if you want to see what makes the global publishing business so exciting.

Page One premiered at the start of 2011 and went on limited US release in June. It barely scraped $1 million at the box office, so now that it’s out on Blu-ray, iTunes and everything else that isn’t print, definitely give it a look.