david carr
New York Times Columnist David Carr attends the TimesTalks shortly before his death Getty

David Carr, the acclaimed columnist for The New York Times, has died after collapsing at the office of the US newspaper aged 58.

Carr, who wrote the hugely popular Media Equation column for The New York Times, joined the paper in 2002 after years of battling a much publicised drug addiction.

After joining the newspaper as a business reporter having previously worked at publications such as the Atlantic Monthly and New York magazine, he began penning his Media Equation column, which appeared in the Monday business section.

He also published his memoir The Night of the Gun in 2008, which detailed how he went from a "fat thug who beat up women and sold bad coke" to a single father raising his twin daughters with the "job that impresses".

Carr also featured heavily in the 2011 documentary about the paper Page One: Inside The New York Times.

His death was confirmed in an email by the paper's executive editor Dean Baquet.

It said:

"I am sorry to have to tell you that our wonderful, esteemed colleague David Carr died suddenly tonight after collapsing in the newsroom.

"A group of us were with his wife, Jill, and one of his daughters, at the hospital.

"He was the finest media reporter of his generation, a remarkable and funny man who was one of the leaders of our newsroom."

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr, the paper's publisher and chairman, added: "David Carr was one of the most gifted journalists who has ever worked at The New York Times.

"He combined formidable talent as a reporter with acute judgment to become an indispensable guide to modern media. But his friends at The Times and beyond will remember him as a unique human being — full of life and energy, funny, loyal and lovable. An irreplaceable talent, he will be missed by everyone who works for The Times and everyone who reads it."

Carr died just a few hours after attending a panel discussion along with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the journalist who helped expose the scandal Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the director of the documentary Citizenfour which chronicles the events.