After finishing college in 1991, Rutenberg began working for the
New York Daily News as a
gossip stringer. He eventually worked his way up to becoming a general assignment reporter. In 1996, he was hired on staff and became a transit beat reporter. He left the
Daily News in 1999 to work as a TV reporter for
The New York Observer. One year later, he was hired by
The New York Times, where he was responsible for covering media and local politics. He also served as City Hall Bureau Chief, and later as chief political correspondent for the Sunday magazine. In January 2016 he was named media columnist. In 2018, Rutenberg was one of a dozen
New York Times reporters who shared the
Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their investigation of
sexual harassment of women in
Hollywood and other industries. The two lead reporters on the story were
Jodi Kantor and
Megan Twohey. Rutenberg was among the group that investigated film producer
Harvey Weinstein's decades-long abuse of women. == Family ==