Andy Newman

I’m a New York Times reporter based in New York City, mostly (but not always) covering homelessness, poverty and social services. Recently, I’ve been reporting on the migrant crisis.

What I Cover

I write stories about human beings in difficult situations and how they navigate the policies that affect them. I’m particularly drawn to exploring mental illness and why there are so many people on the streets who seem unable to get help. I have also written about the large numbers of migrants coming to New York lately, and the city’s efforts to respond to them.

My Background

I’ve covered New York City and the surrounding area for The Times since the mid-90s; I can think of no more amazing job than chronicling life in this city.

I’ve written about everything from courts to transportation to religion to wars between ice cream vendors to why people gaze out apartment windows. I told the story of a homeless woman with schizophrenia and the street team who tried to help her. I worked as a DoorDash deliveryman for a series on difficult and exploitative jobs.

I helped run coverage of major events like the first wave of the pandemic and Hurricane Sandy. In the early internet age, I ran The Times’s local news blog City Room and an even more local effort that focused on one Brooklyn neighborhood for a year. I wrote a column about pets and raised two orphaned pigeons in my bathroom. I met my wife when I interviewed her on the street in Brooklyn for a story about the demolition of some old natural-gas storage tanks.

I often write about very serious things, but I’m always on the lookout for the absurd and the comical and try to bring as much humanity to my work as I can.

Before The Times, I worked at newspapers in New Jersey, where I grew up — the daily Jersey Journal and the weekly Hudson Reporter. Before newspapers, I had about two dozen other jobs. I delivered newspapers (The Easton Express) on my bike, worked the grill at McDonald’s, shelved library books, telemarketed, delivered auto parts, was an overnight convenience store clerk and a census enumerator, and had a series of office jobs. Unlike most of my Times colleagues, I did not grow up wanting to be a journalist, but I always loved to write and I majored in English, at Princeton University.

Journalistic Ethics

In addition to following The Times’s journalistic ethics policy I strive to be as honest as possible with myself and with my readers and to present the results of my reporting as transparently as I can, even — especially — when the conclusions I have reached are not the ones I or my editors may have expected. I pride myself on not being defensive about my mistakes.

Sometimes when I write about people with mental illness, there may be questions about whether they are truly capable of giving consent for me to tell their stories. In those situations, I take guidance from professionals in the field whom I trust.

• Email: andy.newman@nytimes.com

• X: @andylocal

• Anonymous tips: nytimes.com/tips