In the days since The New York Times first published an article on Mr. Weinstein that named names and included details of at least eight settlements, a number of reporters and editors have spoken of their own missed chances to write the story earlier. For many journalists, Mr. Weinstein was the white whale that got away.

Bruce Headlam, a former editor for the late Times media columnist David Carr, told me that Mr. Carr twice came close to nailing down a story about abuses committed by Mr. Weinstein. In both cases, the accuser “backed out after agreeing to talk.”

There were similar stories of failed attempts involving Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker, Benjamin Wallace of New York magazine and Times reporters.

As David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, told me on Wednesday, a news organization cannot go after a powerful figure or institution if it does not have the resources for lawyers, fact checkers and experienced editors who won’t be intimidated by the protection racket.

“Journalistic institutions like these are rare and the times, the economic and political times, have made them fragile and essential at the same time,” Mr. Remnick said. “The stakes are very high.”

Publishing aggressive stories like the ones about Mr. Weinstein can be costly in other ways. As The Times’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, told me, “Harvey Weinstein is an advertiser – but that never even crossed my mind.”

Mr. Baquet added that he did not know how much the Weinstein Company spent to advertise its movies in The Times, but the newspaper was too large to be influenced by any amount. “That’s the other thing – you have to have the size and the history to not even take that into account.”