David Carr Is Mourned By Many

On Thursday, longtime New York Times columnist David Carr passed away at the age of 58. Carr had touched many with his witty, poignant weekly business reports, his starring role in NYT documentary Page One, and his memoir of his addiction to cocaine, The Night Of The Gun. The NYT wrote in its obituary of one of its most prolific writers that Carr had collapsed in the newsroom and died later Thursday evening in hospital.

Carr was a beloved and celebrated figure in journalism, having spent 13 of his quarter-century in journalism at the New York Times and the rest working and editing at a handful of other outlets: The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Washington City Paper, The Twin Cities Reader, among others, according to his obituary. In a memo to staff, editor Dean Baquet wrote:

Dear Colleagues,I am sorry to have to tell you that our wonderful, esteemed colleague David Carr died suddenly tonight after collapsing in the newsroom. A group of us were with his wife, Jill, and one of his daughters, at the hospital. His daughter Erin said he was special, and that he was.He was the finest media reporter of his generation, a remarkable and funny man who was one of the leaders of our newsroom. He was our biggest champion, and his unending passion for journalism and for truth will be missed by his family at The Times, by his readers around the world, and by people who love journalism.Dean