Louis Uchitelle (born March 21, 1932) is a journalist and author. He worked for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' from 1980–2010, first as an editor in the business news department (1980-1987) and then as a business and economics writer (1987-2010). He was the lead reporter for the series ''The Downsizing of America'', which won a
George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...
in 1996. He won the
Gerald Loeb Award
The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...
for Feature Writing in 2007 for "Rewriting the Social Contract". Since retiring from the ''Times'' in 2010, he has been a contributing writer to the newspaper.
Uchitelle joined The Times in 1980 from the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
, where he had been a reporter, editor, and foreign correspondent in Latin America, as well as a news executive.
From 1967 to 1973 he was bureau chief in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
, reporting such stories as the rise and fall of the Tupamaro urban guerrillas in neighboring Uruguay, the Argentine guerrilla movement, the numerous economic issues and trends in Latin America's southern cone countries, the return of
Juan Domingo Perón
''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...
and the election of a Peronist government in 1973.
From 1964 to 1967, he was the AP's correspondent and bureau chief in
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...
, with responsibility for the Caribbean. His reporting included heavy emphasis on economics, at a time when the islands were trying to form an economic union. He played a lead role in AP's coverage of the U.S. military intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965.
Uchitelle began in journalism as a general assignment reporter on The Mount Vernon (N.Y.) Daily Argus. He grew up in
Great Neck, New York
Great Neck is a region on Long Island, New York, that covers a peninsula on the North Shore and includes nine villages, among them Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Great Neck Plaza, Kings Point, and Russell Gardens, and a number of unincorpo ...
and received a B.A. degree from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
The New Press
The New Press is an independent non-profit public-interest book publisher established in 1992 by André SchiffrinMaking It, Why Manufacturing Still Matters.'' He lives in Scarsdale, New York.
Recently, Uchitelle moderated a "Times Talk" panel discussion with
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
,
Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich (, ; ; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and awa ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...