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04/27/2017

Director kickstarting documentary about legendary editor Gene Roberts

From The News Media Alliance

David Layton and  Mike Nicholson are kickstarting the documentary The Newspaperman. They are co-producing and directing. The film will tell the story of newspaper editor Gene Roberts. Roberts is known for turning around the Philadelphia Inquirer  in the 1970s to become one of the best regional papers in the country. The Alliance spoke with the filmmakers about the project in this edition of 5 Answers.

1   What inspired this film?

DAVID: I’ve known about Gene since I was a child. My father worked at the Inquirer, and Gene was always a sort of larger than life figure to me growing up.  It was only when I was much older and my father had retired that I understood just how unique the Inquirer was then. I began to see how Roberts motivated that talented and eclectic group of journalists to do some pretty great things. So I had been kicking this story around in my head for years before we decided to jump in and make the film.

MIKE: I’d been wanting to make a film dealing with media in some way for a long time, so when David first pitched the idea of a film about Gene and the turnaround of the Inquirer, I was interested. But it wasn’t until we were actually interviewing Gene at his home in North Carolina that it really clicked how his story could be a vehicle to explore the broader ideas around the role the media plays in our culture. What happened at the Inquirer is maybe the best example of why journalism is so essential to the functioning of our society and our democracy.

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