Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life

by Margaret Sullivan

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"Over her four decades of working in newsrooms big and small, Margaret Sullivan has become a trusted champion and critic of the American news media. In this bracing memoir, Sullivan traces her life in journalism and how trust in the mainstream press has steadily eroded. Sullivan began her career at the Buffalo News, where she rose from summer intern to editor in chief. In Newsroom Confidential she chronicles her years in the trenches battling sexism and throwing elbows in a highly competitive newsroom. In 2012, Sullivan was appointed the public editor of The New York Times, the first woman to hold that important role. She was in the unique position of acting on behalf of readers to weigh the actions and reporting of the paper's staff, parsing potential lapses in judgment, unethical practices, and thorny journalistic issues. Sullivan recounts how she navigated the paper's controversies, from Hillary Clinton's emails to Elon Musk's accusations of unfairness to the need for greater diversity in the newsroom. In 2016, having served the longest tenure of any public editor, Sullivan left for the Washington Post, where she had a front-row seat to the rise of Donald Trump in American media and politics. With her celebrated mixture of charm, sharp-eyed observation, and nuanced criticism, Sullivan takes us behind the scenes of the nation's most influential news outlets to explore how Americans lost trust in the news and what it will take to regain it"--… (more)

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Full disclosure: I worked with Margaret Sullivan at The Buffalo News. We were hired as interns in the same summer. Years later, she would become editor. I would end up in City Hall. “Newsroom Confidential” casts an enlightening and alarming spotlight on the state of journalism. The fact that I scrawled several pages of notes as I was reading the book speaks volumes about its value. I intend to discuss some of the timely issues with students in my college journalism classes. As an avid reader of Sullivan’s works in the Washington Post and New York Times, many of her themes and viewpoints were not new to me. This isn’t a criticism of the book; it’s a reflection of my steady reading diet of all-things-journalism. The meticulously researched book shares insights on “objectivity,” “fake news,” social media algorithms, media literacy and dozens of other weighty issues. Sullivan goes beyond identifying the problems that face journalism. She proposes some key reforms. She also shares many lively anecdotes about her impressive career. Still, readers who expect dicey or spicy nuggets given the book's title might be disappointed. “Newsroom Confidential” is not even remotely close to a sensational, “tell-all” autobiography. But this clearly wasn’t Sullivan’s intent. Her latest book is an important examination of the state of journalism – and it couldn’t have been published at more opportune time. (

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brianinbuffalo | Apr 9, 2023 |

I'm disappointed that this book by a journalist who truly stands for truth, justice, and the (real) American way seemed so...flat. Her career, from intern to editor to public editor, was covered well and somewhat interesting. Her calling out of major newspapers to stop treating lies as "just the other side" was fairly strong. Her personal encounters with Woodward and Bernstein were gems. But since I was a wannabee newspaper writer, I thought her story and her perspective would be more inspiring, but it just felt...okay. Her heart and pen are in the "write" place, but there was no sense of excitement for me in this read. (

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froxgirl | Mar 4, 2023 |

I found the author's book to be a good look at the state of journalism over the past several decades. I was especially impressed with her rise through the ranks in what was an "old-boys" network. This makes her accomplishments much more impressive. I guess that I am used to the "tell-all" gossip mongering books usually presented in this vein. While I found the book to be rather dry in that sense, I appreciate her ability to present her story without relying on that type of sensationalism. (

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1Randal | Nov 9, 2022 |

I found this book interesting . . . and ultimately a bit unsatisfying. Read my full review here. (

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joyblue | Nov 7, 2022 |

Margaret Sullivan had a storied career at the New York Times and then the Washington Post after beginning her career in Buffalo. For most of those years she was the ombudsman for the papers, fielding complaints from readers and writing analyses about the papers’ and their reporters’ coverage of sources and events. Sullivan looks at where journalism has been, where it is, and where she thinks it’s headed. And it isn’t pretty. To her credit, she doesn’t leave it at criticism, however. She offers possible remedies for the state of things with suggestions on how the media can rectify some pretty dismal performances especially during the Trump administration. In her discussion, though, she misses one very important point. Probably since she has spent her career in the boroughs of NYC and inside the Beltway of the District, she doesn’t seem to realize that the American public really don’t care about the supposed decline of democracy. The latest polling on interest in issues lists concern for the decline of democracy far below the economy, inflation, jobs, even climate change. If this polling does, in fact, reflect a lack of concern for this fundamental foundation of our government and its survival, most of the rest of Sullivan’s book is moot. (

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FormerEnglishTeacher | Nov 3, 2022 |

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"Over her four decades of working in newsrooms big and small, Margaret Sullivan has become a trusted champion and critic of the American news media. In this bracing memoir, Sullivan traces her life in journalism and how trust in the mainstream press has steadily eroded. Sullivan began her career at the Buffalo News, where she rose from summer intern to editor in chief. In Newsroom Confidential she chronicles her years in the trenches battling sexism and throwing elbows in a highly competitive newsroom. In 2012, Sullivan was appointed the public editor of The New York Times, the first woman to hold that important role. She was in the unique position of acting on behalf of readers to weigh the actions and reporting of the paper's staff, parsing potential lapses in judgment, unethical practices, and thorny journalistic issues. Sullivan recounts how she navigated the paper's controversies, from Hillary Clinton's emails to Elon Musk's accusations of unfairness to the need for greater diversity in the newsroom. In 2016, having served the longest tenure of any public editor, Sullivan left for the Washington Post, where she had a front-row seat to the rise of Donald Trump in American media and politics. With her celebrated mixture of charm, sharp-eyed observation, and nuanced criticism, Sullivan takes us behind the scenes of the nation's most influential news outlets to explore how Americans lost trust in the news and what it will take to regain it"--

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