New York Times media columnist David Carr is dead at 58

David Carr.
(Image credit: Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images)

David Carr, the New York Times Media Equation columnist and author of the memoir The Night of the Gun, died Thursday in the Times newsroom. He was 58.

Over the last 25 years, Carr wrote about media at a variety of publications. He joined The Times staff in 2002 as a business reporter covering the magazine publishing industry, and before that was a contributing writer for The Atlantic Monthly and New York. He also served as editor at two alternative weeklies: the Washington City Paper and The Twin Cities Reader, where he wrote a media column.

In its remembrance, The Times calls Carr's writing "folksy and sophisticated, a voice from a shrewd and well-informed skeptic." Along with being an astute and witty media critic, Carr is also being remembered as an invaluable mentor to young journalists. He is survived by his wife, Jill Rooney Carr, and three daughters, Maddie, Erin, and Meagan.

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.