How One New York Times Reporter Covers Media Layoffs and Mergers

Times Insider|Layoffs, Mergers and Ego Clashes, Oh My! How One Reporter Covers It All.

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When Ben Mullin was a junior at California State University, Chico, he spent most of his time in the tiny basement of a 40-year-old building, working as an editor on the student newspaper.

Perhaps all of those long hours in the basement left his performance in the classroom a bit lacking. “I was failing my capstone journalism class,” said Mr. Mullin, now a reporter on the Business desk of The New York Times. “Our adviser for the student newspaper suggested that I had no business failing the class as an editor for the publication.”

To avoid failing, he withdrew from the class and took it again the following semester. Things were looking up: That same semester, he wrote an article for the Poynter Institute about how student newspapers across the country, including his, were struggling financially.

That article was his first to be published in a national publication, and the first of many that would lead to his current beat: the business of media. “I gravitated toward media reporting because I was afraid of what the journalism business might have in store for me,” he said.

Mr. Mullin joined The Times in April 2022 from The Wall Street Journal. In his role, he covers the deals, layoffs and power struggles at major companies in news and entertainment.

In an interview, Mr. Mullin discussed the trends he watches, the outlets he reads and why he’s almost ready to cut out social media. These are edited excerpts.