David Carr, who wrote an influential media column for The New York Times, died suddenly Thursday night.
The 58-year-old columnist collapsed in his office at the newspaper’s Midtown headquarters around 9 p.m. He was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“He was the finest media reporter of his generation,” Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet said in a statement. “A remarkable and funny man who was one of our leaders in the newsroom.”
Carr had appeared just hours earlier downtown at The New School, where he moderated a talk by journalist Glenn Greenwald, filmmaker Laura Poitras and NSA leaker Ed Snowden.
At the forum, Carr appeared in good spirits and joked with Snowden, who appeared via video link from Russia.
“I’m going to channel all the mothers in the room and ask how well you’re eating in Russia,” Carr said.
Carr joined the Times in 2002 as a business reporter, covering magazine publishing.
His Media Equation column appeared in the Monday business section. It focused on issues of media in relation to business, culture and government, said the Times, which confirmed his death.
Carr also wrote “The Night of the Gun,” a 2008 memoir about addiction and recovery.
His columns were known for their witty depictions of the constantly evolving media landscape of the 21st century.
“David Carr stood out because at a time when the news industry is struggling for its soul, he exemplified both soul and integrity,” Times colleague Nicholas Kristof tweeted.
Carr was born in Minneapolis in 1956.
In his autobiography, “The Night of the Gun,” he chronicled his addiction to drugs, admitting he had been hooked on crack cocaine in the 1980s.
David Carr in the documentary “Page One: Inside The New York Times.”Film Still/Magnolia PicturesBefore working for the Times, Carr had written for The Atlantic Monthly and New York magazine.
He served as editor of the Washington City Paper, an alternative weekly in DC. He also was editor of the Twin City Reader, a Minneapolis-based alt weekly.
Carr lived in Montclair, NJ, with his wife, Jill Rooney-Carr, and their daughter, Maddie, and had two other children with another woman.
He said he wrote up the book proposal for “The Night of the Gun” in two days “on a dare to myself.” After an agent sold the idea, Carr ended up interviewing about 60 people and working on the book for three years.
He took the transcribed interviews, numerous documents and pictures to his family’s cabin in the Adirondacks, where he wrote the book.
Last year, Carr began teaching a Boston University class that explored creative business models to support digital journalism.
It was among the first professorships dedicated to evaluating how media organizations can sustain themselves financially in the digital world.
Carr had written about the issue extensively.
Additional reporting by Kevin Dugan
