welcome. that is love affair, new >> it certainly is. but that's brought a lot of happiness and delight and to my life and my husband's and children's lives. >> rose: so it melts your heart down? >> it does. but hit in the beginning leaves you sleep deprived and worried about just about erything. >> rose: this is not the first dog? >> no, no. we h a dog before scout. we had a very hearty west highland white terrier who lived to be 16. >> rose: and so when that dog died did you immediately go looking for scout? >> no, my heartas like broken completely when buddy who was the westy when he passed away, he was in some ways my perfect relationship in life. >> rose: describe that. >> well, i am a huge walker and

he was always up for getting outside. and some of my best... i alws say some of my best work time in many ways is spent walking the dog. either buddy or scout. because there's something about being surrounded by either beautiful new york city or with buddy we lived in virginia and just letting your mind roam free and you're with this coanionable animal who adores you who... you know, james thurber said, which is so true, you know, he made wonderful, wonderful cartoons of dogs but he said they're in a state of perpetual delight which is, like very unlike some of the other expeences one has during the day. >> rose: there's something to be said about "a dog's life." >> absolutely. absolutely >> rose: you get up and there they are waiting for you they

want to go out. you feed them, they go out, you play with them, run, jump, do whatever you do. and you're engaged with them. they get you outside. that's great. and they get you outside before you go to bed, that's great. >> those are my favorite walks, the last one of the night. and in "the puppy diaries" i lk about how my husband was starting to have high blood pressure and having to take medicine and after we got scout-- because he walks with her all the time-- it's gone way down. >> rose: so what it is you want me to come away with, or somebody who going to read "the puppy diaries." >> it's a mixture of manual and memoir. man wall? this is a how-too book? >> it's part how-to and part memoir. it will tell you a lot about the various training methods that you can try with a dog. of course there no one

perfect failafe system. and you learn a little bit about me and our family and the fact that my huand and i are part of a group. we gave it a name. a.b.b.d.s, aging baby boomers with dogs. >> rose: (laughs) >> and we are the fastest-growing segment of dog ownership in this country. >> rose: baby omers? >> aging baby boomers. who you have... thist in nest is empty. if you've had children they've gone to coege and are out of the hou and you find your lif a little empty and sad. >> rose: are you comfortable writing about yourself? >> i never had written about myself the times. i'd never written about animals, either. and in the beginning when i was doing the online column i wasn't comfortable but what i loved was reader interaction because i was

doing it only online and what i discovered, i shouldn't have been surprised, is people are so passionate about their pets and their dogs the comments streamed in. i once was responsible for crashing our web site when i invited readers to send in pictures of their puppies and dogs the whole thing went down because they wanted to participate. so that interested me, that intensity, that passion, the fact that dog owners are a community of sorts and... >> rose: it's a common bond. >> at the "mes" i was beginning very seriously to focus on digital journalism and the whole issue of engagement and interaction wi readers. and i found that scout in t puppy diaries was an inviting

wato begin both experimenting and that writing about myself wasn't that difficult. >> rose: let me talk about this job you've got. how did they interview for this? >> well, i talked to a number of high-ranking people on our business side. i had a long lunch with arthur salzburger, jr. i was nervous. he took know a very nice restaurant, i picked up my food. >> rose: and what did he want to know? >> he was very frank with me. he wanted to know about my vision of where the news report needed to go and he wanted to discuss both some of my strengths and some weaknesses. >> rose: so he had an appraisal of both strengths and weaknesses and whether they would make... >> and i thought they were quite fair. >> rose: anding a senate >> i thought they were accurate. >> rose: like what did hsay in >> he said that, you know, when

i amin a bad mood i can be too usque with people and that you can just read it on my face tt there's, like, good scil who's delighted and engaged and wants to talk about a great story and compliments reports. >> rose: and bad jill is... >> would, like, interrupt and be bad. >> rose: does bad jill until or need to work on listening? >> she has to work on listening. she does. the. >> rose: (laughs) how do you work on it? >> >> well, i just try to take a deep breath and if i have a thought to not jump in and say it right away. to assess whether it actually deepens and contributes to the conversation or is just making a point to make a point and show you're smart. >> rose: so when you need turn the conversation you're prepared to do that? >> yes. >> al hunt, as you know, as a

meeting with you not... to hire you even though he didn't really have the job. he said it was the best hire he's ever made. what did you tell him? >> i don't remember it quite as thunderously as he does. but what i came into the intervw with was a list of stories that i thought were great stories that the "wall street journal" hadn't really done tho types of stories and that really caught his attention and he liked those ideas an and i think took him from being blase about meet me thinking she should contribute to this place. >> rose: in the end if you can convince somebody you can make their life easier, better, or improve the mission then you're halfway there. >> rose: you are, indeed. >> rose: and that you understand the mission, right? >> i thought the mission then...

oddly it was in washington was to that no one was paying enough attention to the role of lobbyists and money in politics. and now we live an era the candidates all disclose their finances just now where it's a big story but back in those days it was a part of washington happening beheine a ctain. >> rose: look at tax legislation and the supercommittee, what kind of influence is taking place there? or in fashioning the regulations that are coming out of dodd-frank. >> oh, gosh. >> rose: there's a story. >> right. everything is and since you mentioned the tax committees, one of the stories i remember that was on my list long ago for al involved a story about senator russell long who had become a lobbyist and was one of the masters of the tax code. >> rose: because lobbyists help write the tax code and if you ask them what theyo they say they improve the process by

making it better. >> right. it's a permanent other government. >> rose: where are you in terms of how you taken a online culture and a mainstream culture and find a new place for both of them? >> the new place is the old place in many ways which is what distinguishes the the "times" as quality journalism. and we do that in print in the print newspaper and we do it in innovative ways digitally by the hour. we deepen stories by bringing readers into the conversation. you enliven a story and add new dimensions to it. and, you know, i've been very invested in o digital work and we used to talk at the "times," even arthur would use the phrase "we have to be ready for our digital future." well, it's not the digital

fure, it's e digital present. >> rose: right. it's here. >> but meanwhile we have a print newspaper is treasureed by hundreds of thousands of readers. we actually have more people who ho subscribe to the "new york times" in print for two years or more now than we did. so we have a very dedicated core of people who enjoy the news report most in print and so we're gonna keep delivering it that way to them. th love that. but we have to be on the cutting j of digital right now, we're working a lot in social media >> how are you using social media? >> i'll give you anxamp. and example of why quality journalism is the thing that creates one news report for all platforms basically came... like the night of steve jobs' death.

we had a state-of-the-art wonderful obituary that john markoff, one of our tech writers had prepared along with steve lore, one of his colleagues. john markoff... >> rose: he knows silicon valley. >> and has known steve jobs since the formation of apple. that was inform a class by itself because it was full of markoff's incredible anecdotes and it was just a wonderful piece. but at the same time, we go up with that on the web because we learned of jobs' death a little after 7:00 if i remember. we were live blogging on our bits blog. we had by 8:30 we were culling from in social media some of the tweets. there was an outpouring of people on twitter. people felt a visceral

connection to jobs and we culled some of the best tweets and put putt them on the home page. john markoff did a video. and the next day we were back with only only in the "new york times" story behind the story. >> rose: let me guess what you were talking about. >> the final d... >> rose: and how you knew who he was dying and 40 who he didn't nt to see and how they had to close him down? >> that was difficult reporting. where... >> rose: because you have to be sensitive or... >> because, you know, the families... the family didn't want to talk right away and you don't want to intrude. but nonetheless everyone... you know everyone is interested and his final weeks were interesting and he met with people including might i say, the same john markoff was one of these who saw him last summer. >> rose: but this was mainly

about the last days of his life. >> right, it was. >> rose: that was sopowerful. >>. >> rose: >> but that's what "new york times" signature journalism does and when i talked about covering lobbying before it takes the reader behind the curtain of public events and explains why they happened and how they happen and the characters that were driving the action. >> rose: tell me about the sisterhood of you and maureen and jane. i mean what... there are >> there are a couple of other members... >> rose: who else? >> alexandra stanley is very close to maureen and is someone i know going back to college days. and our lead brilliant book critic. >> rose: tell me about it, what it means and how you reinforce each other. $well, i think thehing... >> rose: is it life supportive? >> it's very supportive but

mainly it's journalistically supportive. i will talk to maureen about i want her take on the republican debate or jane will hear something. we're mainly talking about current events and what the cutting edge ideas are. >> rose: i mean, the obvious story en you almost lost your life when you were hit in front of the times and almost died and the cops said to you on the street... >> two inches higher and you'd be out of here. >> rose: and then maureen drops everything, comes every week to see you. >> they all did. >> rose: so that's what i'm talking about. you think of... do you know men at had the same kind of... >> well, not quite. and i think part of it is that we all started out in an era in journalism in the' 80s where there weren't that many female

repoers >> but you stuck together for a shared sensz of... >> well, we just drew a lot of joy in each other's successes as we moved forward in the procession. when maureen dowd goter kohl flupl the "times" i went to bring flowers and champagne. i've done work at the journal and her death was like an altar. there were so many bouquets and a whole liquor shop full of celebratory booze but, you know, you just... you exalt in each other's successes. an with jane mayer of the "new yorker" who i've known going back to junior high school days... >> rose: you wrote a book with her didn't you? >> we wrote a book about clarence thomas and anita hill together. she is a fantastic investigative reporter and and her... she's

written ma great books, not only thene with me but i feel the book we did together was i feel my best work. >> rose: why? >> because we took four years and it was one of those stories where everyone was saying "you'll never know where the truth lies." and we reported and reported and reported and felt like the weight of our reporting. >> rose: you got the confirmation of clarence thomas and the other stories around him... $what interested me this weekend because the "the puppy diaries" had actually come out that this weekend marked 20 years since the hill thomas hearing. >> rose: wheres she now? >> she's been teaching at brandeis. she was at a conference at hunter that i was able to listen to on c-span radio a bit that seemed really good.

>> ro: mrs. thomas called her up... >> yes the "times" broke that story. >> rose: what did she ask her. >> recant. yomust want to recant what you said. (laughs) >> rose: but that was the toughest and hardest and scariest thing for you in journalism? >> it was tough. jane and i were attacked by conservative supporters of justice thomas and it was pretty furious for a while. >> rose: your reputation... toughness goes hand in hand with the name jill abramson. it does! look at you smiling! it's true. >> rose: the question is whether you felt you had to be tt way. >> in the book or at work or in snauls. >> rose: in your journalistic

career. >> well, investigative reporting is a tough line of work. it's not one where you usually make its a whole lot of friends. you're usually investigating scandals. >> rose: and therefore people will be pushing back more than you've seen. >> when i began, especially doing big money there politics investigations at the "wall street journal" it was hard for me to cold call people and ask them unpleasant questions. rose: did it get easy? >> it got easier. >> rose: when did you know... >> but i always try to walk in the boots ofhe person i'm writing about. that's a good way to, like, make sure you do not have anything gratuitous in ur pieces. >> rose: do you ask yourself "is this fair?" >> do. i do. and i've had some crises in t reporting and writing of stori with myself of, like, this is tough but is it fair and

worryingbout that. >> rose: and have you ever said "i went over the line, this isn't fair"? >> um... >> rose: have you been close to the line? >> close to the line on a few, yes. >> rose: like what? >> this is sort of an ancient story. when i worked at the "journal" i did... i broke atory about bruce babbitt was the interior secretary and he had been involved in approving a license for an indian casino and the lobbyist invold in that had been a college friend and it was a big story at the time and in the end i'm not sure i took fair account of the entirety ofis washington career. that i don't thi he was someone on the scale of

influence peddling in washington probably belong flooer the top and i spent an awful long time writing stories about that. >> rose: where do you worry abouin terms of the "times"? for example, some people ask about... there's increasing amount of opinion in the paper. do you worry about that? >> you know, i'm mindful of it and we have columns in the news pages. quite a few of them biz day, quite a few columnist in and, you know, i asked i sometimes read before those columns are published but we have drilled in the editors that there is a line between opinion and urging a specific action and deep analysis and i prefer to be on the side of deep analysis. >> rose: when you see a great

writer, you just stand up and salute? >> i guess for me, you know, yes. and most recent sort of appreciation of the beauty of writing and collecting everything and to just... into just a seamless story was, like after all of the journalism that was focused on thenniversary of 9/11, bob mcfadden who's been at the "times" forever who, you know, has been... a master of the art of rewrite, he wrote just one story about the day which if y hadn' absorbed any television or read anythg else every ragraph was a jewel. >> rose: but you have to worry about tv times and the future we live and print and all that stuff. and arthur sulzberger has been getting some praise about having

transversed this digital place. >> well, i think that we he so deserves the praise is that our business strategy is rooted in quality journalism. and so in a time period where the economics of newspapers and of the news media generally have been very difficult and rocky he has... he has kept our news-gathering mull really strong. we have opened domestic bureaus when other newspapers have closed them all. he has continued to invest both digitally and in pnt. and we... it's amazing to think that our news gather magazine or newsroom now is as big as it was

ten years ago. >> rose: and you won't have to make any layoffs? >> one never can say never with the economy as cloudy as it is. but i no of no layoff plans. we have announced a very small completely voluntary buyout plan >> rose: the "times" always said it's all the news fit to print. how does jill abramson see the mission of the "new york times?" >> you know, i see the mission to definitely still cover the world. and that's why it's so important that we actually have increased our forgn corresponding... staff of foreign correspoents. but i have a feeling that my definition of fit to print is probably different from when

th saying was first... >> rose: what would be your definition of fit to print? >> fito print is is it legitimately newsworthy a also is it interesting? sometimes i willick a front-page story just because i think people will find it interesting, not because it's a world-shaking importance or seriousness. >> rose: and will you put it on the front page? >> i will put it on the front page. >> rose: what's an example of that? >> oh, i'd say an example of that was... i guess because i'm talking to you in the bloomberg building i'm thinking of we had a story about the mayor's decorator, the mayor's very prive about his... where he lives. snipe was that the michael mubar story? >> whatever. >> rose: (laughs) whatever means what? >> the private... very private mayor's decorator had brandished like big glossy pictures of the

mayor's very elegant domiciles in london and new york. so we did an entertaining story about that and showed pictures and it was just interesting and it was newsworthy because the mayor is so private and very much resents reporters poking around into the part of his life he considers private. and here his own decorator was doing it. >> rose: what is it the paper ll look like after ten years of abramson? will it be more... how will it be different? >> i'm not sure it will be all that different. >> rose: it ll all be about online? >> it will not be all about online, i'm totally in love with the paper and td him it's the best way to rdour news report because you can read it serendipitously d stop at things you weren't looking for but catch your interestlong

the way. but digitally it will be real different and i think the transition we're seeing... and i think we see it in my life, what is the first thing i reach for when one eye is open but my ipad because it's right next to the bed. >> rose: you keep your ipad right next to you? (laughs) >> i do! >> rose: and if you wake up at night do you look at it? >> occasionally. i try not to because i find then i start reading and don't go back to sleep. >> rose: the foreign coverage of the ew yk times" will be stronger? we're not going to reduce our presence around the world? >> it's hard to imagine it being stronger it's so strong now. we will not reduce our presence around the world. this past summer the managing editor of the "times" and i went to visit our bureaus in pakistan and afghanistan and we still maintain a big commitment in

those countries which. you know, you serve under difficult circumstances but we keep a fully operated bureau in iraq still. are not retreating for any of the big stories. >> rose: as the editor-in-chief how much will you write? >> in the beginning i wrote something for our member issue, the nth anniversary. which we called the reckoning and i wrote a piece which was ofof some of thethings i observed in afghanistan and pakistan. hope to do some writing but i have my hands full as executive editor. >> rose: you grew up on the west si of manhattan. >> i did. >>. >> rose: with all the normal impressions we have of people who grew up on the west side of

manhattan in terms of their political inclan nations? i grew up... my parents were democrats and the upper west side of manhattan is definitely known on the electoral map as one of the reliably liberal places in the country. but i think just like i was saying to you with tough stories i really try to think about are they fair. i do a fair amount of second guessing. are we bringing any kind of political overlay to a story or especially i worry that because we're the "new york times," we have an urban outlook o stories. >> rose: what does that mean? >> it means that... >> rose: we're all sort of a ceain... >> yeah, certain issues that we write about, we make assumptions that evebody might find it a normal course of events when in

some parts of the country it might not be. and i'm sensitive that we have to have a diverse newsroom and that doesn't only mean gender or ethnicity, it means like having people with different backgrounds. like chris shivers who writes these amazing stories from afghanistan was a marine. and his experience set in way of looking at thing was somewhat ffert. >> rose: you came from the "wall street journal." >> i did. because i had always dreamed of working at the "new york times." >> rose: you've always dreamd? >> i did. because my parents were just giant "times" readers. >> rose: you said it was like religion in the house. >> well, i wasaking a joke but certainly the times said something was important or true that's the way it was. >>ose: so therefore you have to protect sometng very important which is the integrity of the times. >> absolutely.