The New York Times Company

I

Introduction

The New York Times Company, major newspaper publisher and media company. The New York Times Company owns newspapers, television and radio stations, and electronic information services. The company’s flagship publication, the New York Times, is one of the most influential newspapers in the world. The company owns the Boston Globe and numerous regional daily newspapers. The company also owns the International Herald Tribune newspaper. The company’s Information Services Group runs a news service and a features syndicate, and publishes the company’s newspapers on the Internet.

II

Early History

The New York Times Company got its start in 1851 when Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, two staffers at the New York Tribune, decided to start their own newspaper. Raymond and Jones wanted to produce a newspaper that reported the news objectively, without resorting to the sensationalism that characterized the journalism of that era. The new paper, the New York Daily Times, quickly became a success. The word Daily was dropped in 1857.

The paper distinguished itself with its in-depth coverage of the American Civil War (1861-1865). It carried the entire text of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of November 19, 1863, on its front page. In 1869 Raymond died, leaving Jones in charge of the paper. In 1871 the newspaper exposed political corruption by William Marcy Tweed and an elite inner circle within the Tammany Society—New York City’s Democratic Party machine.

In 1891 Jones died and the quality of the paper declined rapidly. The paper was hurt further by an economic depression in the early 1890s and headed toward bankruptcy. In 1896 Adolph Ochs, editor and publisher of a small newspaper in Chattanooga, Tennessee, took over as publisher of the Times. In 1900 he gained control of a majority of the company’s stock. Ochs developed the Times into one of the world’s foremost newspapers. Today the company is owned and run by Ochs’s descendants.

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In 1918 the Times was awarded the first of many Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of World War I (1914-1918). In 1935 Ochs died, but not without leaving instructions on the future direction of the paper. Ochs stipulated in his will that the Times should be “an independent newspaper, entirely fearless, devoted to the public welfare without regard to individual advantage or ambition, the claims of party politics or personal prejudice or predilection.”

After Ochs’s death, his son-in-law Arthur Hays Sulzberger became president of the company. In 1942 the paper published the first of its famous crossword puzzles. In 1944 Sulzberger diversified the company by purchasing two New York City radio stations.

During the 1960s, the newspaper went through some hard financial times, the result of two strikes by workers and decreasing revenues. In 1967 the Times teamed up with the Washington Post Company to start the International Herald Tribune, a daily newspaper published in Paris, France. During the 1970s the company bought television stations, cable television systems, regional newspapers, and magazines, including Family Circle.

In 1971 the Times became the first newspaper to publish the Pentagon Papers—secret documents detailing government deception concerning United States policy in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). The Times’s publication of the papers led to an important ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States on the freedom of the press. The Times also won a Pulitzer Prize for publishing the papers. It was not the first time that the Times was involved in an important Supreme Court decision. In 1964 the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in a libel case known as New York Times Company v. Sullivan, ruling that “actual malice” must be shown to prove libel. (See the Sidebar, “From New York Times Company v. Sullivan.”)

III

Business Developments

In the 1980s the company bought golf and sailing magazines and McCall’s, a women’s magazine. It sold its cable television systems.

During the 1990s the newspaper industry experienced a serious slowdown. The price of newsprint rose steeply while advertising revenues and readership declined. The Times fared better than most, with circulation holding. Nevertheless, the paper was forced to trim staff. Despite these problems, the company bought the Boston Globe in 1993.

In the mid-1990s the company acquired a majority interest in Video News International, a newsgathering company. It also bought two cable television news networks. In 1996 the company launched an online version of the Times on the Internet and the following year announced plans to sell all of its magazines except its golf publications. It eventually divested itself of those publications as well. Also in 1997, the Times used color on its front page for the first time in its history. In 2006 the paper announced it would be reducing its double-page width by 7.5 cm (3 in), as part of an economy drive in response to rising newsprint costs.

IV

Pulitzer Prizes

In 2002 the Times was awarded a record seven Pulitzer Prizes, including six for coverage related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. The newspapers owned by the New York Times Company have won more than 100 Pulitzer Prizes.

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