NEW YORK RULES
Ten Thousand Journalists Together on a Tight Little Island

If geography is destiny, then the epicenter for the media is Manhattan. This is the media capital of the world, home to leading newspapers, major magazines, news services, most television networks, large book publishers, and Internet providers.

This has been true for a long time, but even in the age of information fragmentation, New York remains the place to be for many. AOL thinks so; it is building a new headquarters at Columbus Circle. The New York Times has unveiled a new skyscraper design, and Bloomberg is looking for a new landmark home.

Take a look at the geography. Rockefeller Plaza, home of NBC, is the backdrop for Katie Couric on Today. Just across the plaza is The Associated Press. Nearby are Fox News, McGraw Hill/Business Week, and the Time Inc. magazine complex, in a line of sleek skyscrapers. A few blocks away, Times Square is aglow with electronic headlines: Dow Jones (although its Wall Street Journal headquarters is in the financial district), ABC, Reuters, and Bloomberg, all offer the latest news and financial information. ABC has its streetside studio there, while Condé Nast and its magazines have moved in, and Reuters is on its way. And The New York Times gave the neighborhood its name.

More than ten thousand journalists -- reporters, writers, editors, producers, photo and graphics people, and authors -- are based in Manhattan. This is an extraordinary concentration of media power. Proximity brings with it a super-charged competitive environment, but the concentration also grants a disproportionate influence. Because New York is the center, its media tend to look inward. When they do look at the rest of the world, they tend to filter the news agenda through the prism of New York. What does this do to America's news?

Many of the journalists here have little in common with those who occupy the executive suites or are the journalistic stars of the big media companies. Yet in New York, your competitors tend to share certain experiences and values. One small example: most journalists here read The New York Times, sometimes called the house organ of the media establishment, and that's not surprising. But an informal survey also shows that most of them also read the New York Observer, the highly opinionated weekly that is full of New York media gossip, which is rarely seen outside the city. They obviously read The New Yorker, but rarely the Los Angeles Times or the Chicago Tribune or The Dallas Morning News, narrowing rather than widening their experience.

Because they are neighbors they share other experiences: they socialize with each other, share podiums at meetings or panels, go to restaurants and bars together, even go on trips together. And, yes, marry each other. It is indeed a tight little island.

It gets tighter. Many have more ties: educational background, economic status, social beliefs, and occasionally political ones. These characteristics have generated the term Media Elite, an oversimplified and not always accurate phrase. But the fact is that with ten thousand journalists in one place, those at the top of the heap by their authority or their ideas have unparalleled influence over the national media agenda.

It would be wrong to characterize the media elite as monolithic, particularly at a time when the Internet is sprouting new media organizations whose home geography is cyberspace. Nor should we overstate its influence. Nonetheless, New York's media still rule. Ten thousand journalists are loose in the city -- the concentration of media power in New York is a reality. Geography is destiny.

TAKE A LOOK AT "THE SHAPERS"
A list of 200 New Yorkers, selected by CJR, who help
shape the national media agenda.