The New York Times - USA (2020-07-22)

A2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

In late March, Sam Sifton reached out to

Tina Jordan, the deputy editor of The New

York Times Book Review, with a request.

Mr. Sifton is the assistant managing

editor overseeing The Times’s cultural and

lifestyles coverage, and his pitch to Ms.

Jordan was simple: Would you put togeth-

er a Google Doc offering some recommen-

dations for life during the pandemic?

“I reached out to Tina thinking that I

might have to explain a little more,” Mr.

Sifton said. “And she was like, ‘Oh yeah, I

have one. I do that.’ ”

Ms. Jordan started keeping a diary in

February to document her experience as

the outbreak unfolded. But she kept return-

ing to her pop culture consumption, which

“had changed radically” and seemed to

better explain how she was feeling.

Her coronavirus diary, “What I’m

Watching, Reading and Obsessing Over,”

was published by The New York Times in

mid-May, and it looks nothing like a New

York Times article. That’s because it really

is just a Google Doc, one of several from

Times staff members made public for

readers to view and share. Google Docs

are alive; their authors can add to them

mostly as they please.

The project, Notes From Our Homes to

Yours, is an experiment under the umbrel-

la of At Home, a Times section offering

advice, activities and other bits of journal-

ism for life in a world changed by the coro-

navirus. Most Times reporters and editors

were at home on lockdown, too. Maybe

they had thoughts to offer readers?

The project, which featured a new set of

Google Docs published on Tuesday, is an

example of The Times’s embrace of tech-

nology in recent years to explore new ways

to create and present stories. Readers have

been able to access Google Docs and

Sheets like Ms. Jordan’s; or a guide from

the culture writer Jenna Wortham that

recommends charities and Black-owned

book stores; or the tech and cultural re-

porter Nellie Bowles’s guide to using home

listings as a relaxation tool.

“It was very open-ended,” said Brian

Gallagher, a senior editor on the Food desk

who helped oversee the project. “We just

wanted to see what they created.”

The team began reaching out to people

like Ms. Jordan and Ms. Bowles, who creat-

ed two different documents. Ms. Bowles

said she had long found visualization exer-

cises useful as a way to relax and manage

stress. When the coronavirus began to

spread, she found herself feeling anxious

and had trouble sleeping. Browsing Zillow,

a real estate website, she could imagine a

different life in a world without the virus

(without seriously considering buying

anything). For example, “Where would I

live in Tulsa?” she said.

The challenge of presenting to readers a

collection of documents not built inside the

New York Times website fell to Jaspal

Riyait, an art director, and Adriana Ramic,

a graphics and multimedia editor. They

mixed familiar Google and Times design

elements to help readers understand what

they were looking at.

Each doc is a display of personality as

much as information. Mr. Gallagher was

the person largely tasked with editing the

writing to preserve that raw character.

That meant (mostly) not imposing The

Times’s style rules. And while his first

concern was catching obvious mistakes,

Mr. Gallagher also considered what to

leave untouched, like the way writers used

bullet points.

In addition to featuring ruminations and

recommendations, some of the docs have

contained weightier information and ad-

vice. When Jamal Jordan, a digital story-

telling editor, was tapped to put together a

file, he realized he had a valuable resource

to share. From previous reporting projects,

he had accumulated contact information

for many members of the L.G.B.T.Q. com-

munity “who have lived through a crisis

like this before” — a world-changing, mys-

terious virus — with H.I.V. and AIDS in the

1980s and ’90s.

So he asked himself, Why don’t I just ask

them their thoughts? Consistent among all

the docs, however, is the sense that they

offer a peek behind the curtain at what the

authors are thinking about during the

pandemic, as well as who they are.

“It’s in some ways getting to have a

conversation with readers that we get to

have with each other in the office,”

Mr. Gallagher said.

Inside The Times

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

The New York Times Has

Shared a File With You

To read the Google Docs, go to the “How to Deal”

section of nytimes.com/athome.

What happens when you invite staff members to create a

Google Doc, write about what they’re thinking and doing

during the pandemic, and make it public? “Notes From

Our Homes to Yours” brings journalists and readers closer.

By JAKE LUCAS

July 22, 1999.The bodies of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and

his sister-in-law, Lauren G. Bessette, were recovered in the Atlantic near Martha’s Vine-

yard. With the two sisters on board, the plane Mr. Kennedy was piloting crashed into the

ocean on the night of July 16. Searchers found the three “trapped in the shattered fu-

selage of his plane on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean,” The Times reported. Aviation au-

thorities believed Mr. Kennedy had become disoriented at the controls in a blackened sky.

The ashes of the three victims were buried at sea.

Subscribers can browse the complete Times archives through 2002 at timesmachine.nytimes.com.

On This Day in History

A MEMORABLE HEADLINE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

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AUDIO

The latest episodeof the “Popcast”

podcast pays tribute to the re-

nowned movie composer Ennio

Morricone, who died earlier this

month. The film editor and critic

Joshua Rothkopf and Jon Pareles,

The Times’s chief pop music critic,

provide insights on Mr. Morri-

cone’s career. nytimes.com/popcast

EVENT

In a “Dealbook Debrief”live

audio event, David E. Sanger,

national security correspondent

(below right), joins Andrew Ross

Sorkin (below left) and the Deal-

Book team to discuss the evolving

role of technology in national

security strategy. July 23 at 11 a.m.

E.D.T. timesevents.nytimes.com

A. G. SULZBERGER

Publisher

Founded in 1851

ADOLPH S. OCHS

Publisher 1896-

ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER

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ORVIL E. DRYFOOS

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NEWS

DEAN BAQUETExecutive Editor

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SAM DOLNICKAssistant Managing Editor

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MATTHEW ERICSONAssistant Managing Editor

ALISON MITCHELLAssistant Managing Editor

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SAM SIFTONAssistant Managing Editor

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