Movies or TV heavily featuring magazines / newspapers / digital media?

February 21, 2019 12:18 PM

I've always enjoyed movies, TV shows, documentaries, etc. where the day to day of the news-oriented publishing business are involved. For example, Ugly Betty, The Devil Wears Prada, The Intern, or the BBC's series about how Vogue UK operates. Got any recommendations?

Fictional or non-fiction both fine. The only condition is that the workplace, employees, and the day to day of the business feature heavily (so Almost Famous isn't an ideal answer, say, because it's more about music and life on the road).

posted by wackybrit to Media & Arts (28 answers total)

The Paper
His Girl Friday
The Post
All the Presidents Men
posted by alchemist at 12:19 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

All the President's Men and Broadcast News come immediately to mind. The former may be too obvious, but it's all about how journalists Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate story during the Nixon presidency. Broadcast News is very much about TV rather than print publishing, but I think it has that workaday flavor you crave. Fifth season of The Wire, too. May seem like a long way to go for some newspaperin', but it's a great show even if season 5 isn't the best part.

Spotlight, too, the Oscar-winning movie from a couple years ago about the investigation of sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
posted by Mothlight at 12:23 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

From the Columbia Journalism Review: journalists share their favorite journalism movies. (Includes this: "The only good journalism movie is Broadcast News (1987). All other journalism movies are absurd.")
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:26 PM on February 21, 2019

The September Issue, about how the largest issue of Vogue comes together.
posted by airplant at 12:27 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

The Bold Type is a silly but fun show about three young women who work at a fictionalized version of Cosmo.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:30 PM on February 21, 2019

-30- from 1959, with Jack Webb and William Conrad.

Managing Editor Sam Gatlin [Webb] arrives in the afternoon and leaves early the next morning, having put together a morning newspaper for Los Angeles.
posted by Fukiyama at 12:30 PM on February 21, 2019

Great News was a 30 Rock-style sitcom about a cable news show that never got its rightful notice.
posted by bleep at 12:33 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Newsroom. The Post.
posted by puellaeterna at 12:38 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

If you’re ok with foreign dramas, I really enjoyed Argon
posted by forforf at 12:57 PM on February 21, 2019

The Hours.
posted by praemunire at 1:22 PM on February 21, 2019

Network (movie)
NewsRadio (TV series)
posted by overeducated_alligator at 1:42 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Sports Night.

It's sports news but still that daily production grind.
posted by rewil at 2:02 PM on February 21, 2019

zodiac was an engaging movie.
frost/nixon was an excellent play; no reason to doubt the 2008 film version is likewise good.
posted by 20 year lurk at 2:14 PM on February 21, 2019

You should binge watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
posted by nantucket at 2:19 PM on February 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just Shoot Me (TV)
posted by blackjack514 at 3:20 PM on February 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

The Paper, All The President's Men, and Shattered Glass are my favourite journalism movies.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:27 PM on February 21, 2019

Oh and the fifth season of The Wire.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:32 PM on February 21, 2019

I recently watched the first season of Press and really liked it. There are a few parts, especially in the first episode, that are a bit obvious/cringey/cliché, but otherwise it's really interesting.
posted by bellebethcooper at 4:07 PM on February 21, 2019

You should binge watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

And it's follow-up, Lou Grant
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:02 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Press Gang. School-based YA newsroom. The nec plus ultra of British 90's teen programming. Fabulous script, Julia Sawalha and Dexter Fletcher were the Hepburn/Tracy of our time.
posted by runincircles at 5:28 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Good Girls Revolt on Amazon.
posted by Empidonax at 9:16 PM on February 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

W1A, a comedy set in a (just) fictional version of the BBC, might be to your taste.
posted by rongorongo at 4:36 AM on February 22, 2019

Drop the Dead Donkey

Dear God that's nearly thirty years old.
posted by Grangousier at 4:41 AM on February 22, 2019

If you can tolerate superheroes/action/adventure, the main character in Supergirl works for a media/journalism conglomerate.
posted by zeusianfog at 10:35 AM on February 22, 2019

Shattered Glass (2003) is a docudrama about how the prestigious beltway magazine The New Republic was brought low in the 90s by a breathtaking case of journalistic fraud, all exposed by the then-upstart online outlet Forbes Digital Tool. It's a surprisingly compelling study of pathology, manipulation, self-destruction, and office politics, and takes place almost entirely inside the offices of the two magazines (including a lot of scenes about how their articles are researched, pitched, and fact-checked).
posted by Rhaomi at 5:15 PM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975), also the two movies, Night Stalker and Night Strangler.
posted by TrishaU at 2:11 AM on February 23, 2019

Absence of Malice (1981)
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Veronica Guerin (2003)
Nothing But the Truth (2008)
Whisky Tango Foxtrot (2016)

An article about movies and journalism, with a list of movies.
A list of movies about journalists.
posted by TrishaU at 2:27 AM on February 23, 2019

Response by poster: Fantastic, folks. Much appreciated!

Since essentially every answer is good here, I'm not going to mark Best Answers as it'll look messy, but consider yourself all virtually getting one :-D
posted by wackybrit at 2:50 PM on February 27, 2019