OLD Media Moves

Why a NY Times tech reporter likes to print out documents

March 27, 2019

Posted by Chris Roush

Erin Griffith

New York Times technology reporter Erin Griffith talked about the technology she uses for her job and why she still likes paper documents.

Here is an excerpt:

What tech tools do you rely on the most for work?

This is least techie answer possible, but aside from email and my phone’s voice recorder, it’s probably paper. (Sorry, trees, including the one this article will be printed on.) For every big story I do, I print out huge stacks of background reading on the executives and industry. They’re good for flights since there’s no danger of bad Wi-Fi or no outlets.

When I’m writing a longer story, I print out all my interview notes and spread the pages across my kitchen table (or floor), in the manner of a chef’s mise en place. This helps me organize my thoughts before I dive into the writing. I don’t understand how people can work off 30 different documents on one tiny laptop screen.

I also find it very comforting to constantly make and remake to-do lists on whatever paper I can find — old envelopes and junk mail, receipts, notepads shaped like my first initial, Post-its. I leave a trail of these everywhere I go, like the Johnny Appleseed of productivity.

Read more here.

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