(Reuters) - New York Times media columnist David Carr collapsed at the newspaper's office and died on Thursday, the paper reported. He was 58.
Carr penned the widely read Media Equation column that appeared in the Monday business section and focused on "media as it intersects with business, culture and government," according to his biography on the New York Times website. He was also a general assignment reporter for the paper's culture section.
The Times said Carr collapsed in the paper's newsroom and was discovered around 9 p.m. local time (0200 GMT). He was later pronounced dead at Saint Luke's Roosevelt Hospital.
Carr moderated a panel discussion earlier on Thursday on "Citizenfour," the documentary that chronicles the historic leaking of documents by former U.S. government security contractor Edward Snowden, with director Laura Poitras, journalist Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden, the paper said.
Carr joined the New York Times in 2002 covering the magazine publishing industry, after working as a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and New York magazine, the paper said.
Earlier in his career, Carr was editor of the alternative Washington D.C. weekly, Washington City Paper, and editor of the Minneapolis-based alternative weekly, the Twin Cities Reader, the Times said. In 2000, he joined Inside.com, a news site about the publishing industry.
Carr's memoir, "The Night of the Gun," which centered on his past struggles with drug addiction, was published in 2008 by Simon and Schuster, the paper said.
Tributes to the writer poured in over social media quickly after his death.
"Heartbroken about David Carr's death. Great journalist, but more important, great human being. Will miss him," tweeted Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post.
Carr lived in Montclair, New Jersey, and is survived by his wife Jill Rooney Carr and his three children.
He was the second major force in U.S. journalism to die in the past two days.
On Wednesday, Veteran CBS News correspondent Bob Simon was killed in a car accident in New York City at the age of 73. Simon's decades-long career included covering major overseas conflicts and surviving Iraqi prison. [ID:nL1N0VM05N]
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Kim Coghill and Paul Tait)