1851–1896 The New York Times was established in 1851 as the
New-York Daily Times by
New-York Tribune journalists
Henry Jarvis Raymond and
George Jones. The
Times experienced significant circulation, particularly among conservatives;
New-York Tribune publisher
Horace Greeley praised the
Times. During the
American Civil War,
Times correspondents gathered information directly from
Confederate states. In 1869, Jones inherited the paper from Raymond, who had changed its name to
The New-York Times. Under Jones, the
Times began to publish a series of articles criticizing
Tammany Hall political boss
William M. Tweed, despite vehement opposition from other New York newspapers. In 1871,
The New-York Times published Tammany Hall's accounting books; Tweed was tried in 1873 and sentenced to twelve years in prison. The
Times earned national recognition for its coverage of Tweed. In 1891, Jones died, creating a management imbroglio in which his children had insufficient business acumen to inherit the company and his will prevented an acquisition of the
Times. Editor-in-chief
Charles Ransom Miller, editorial editor Edward Cary, and correspondent George F. Spinney established a company to manage
The New-York Times, but faced financial difficulties during the
Panic of 1893.
1896–1945 In August 1896,
Chattanooga Times publisher
Adolph Ochs acquired
The New-York Times, implementing significant alterations to the newspaper's structure. Ochs established the
Times as a merchant's newspaper and removed the hyphen from the newspaper's name. In 1905,
The New York Times opened
Times Tower, marking expansion. The
Times experienced a political realignment in the 1910s amid several disagreements within the
Republican Party.
The New York Times reported on the
sinking of the Titanic, as other newspapers were cautious about bulletins circulated by the
Associated Press. Through managing editor
Carr Van Anda, the
Times paid considerable attention to advances in science, reporting on
Albert Einstein's then-obscure theory of
general relativity and becoming involved in the
discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. In April 1935, Ochs died, leaving his son-in-law
Arthur Hays Sulzberger as publisher. The
Great Depression forced Sulzberger to reduce
The New York Timess operations, and developments in the New York newspaper landscape resulted in the formation of larger newspapers, such as the
New York Herald Tribune and the
New York World-Telegram. In contrast to Ochs, Sulzberger encouraged
wirephotography.
The New York Times extensively covered
World War II through large headlines, reporting on exclusive stories such as the
Yugoslav coup d'état. Amid the war, Sulzberger began expanding the
Timess operations further, acquiring
WQXR-FM in 1944—the first non-
Times investment since the Jones era—and established a fashion show in Times Hall. Despite reductions as a result of conscription,
The New York Times retained the largest journalism staff of any newspaper. The
Timess print edition became available internationally during the war through the
Army & Air Force Exchange Service;
The New York Times Overseas Weekly later became available in Japan through
The Asahi Shimbun and in Germany through the
Frankfurter Zeitung. The international edition would develop into
a separate newspaper. Journalist
William L. Laurence publicized the
atomic bomb race between the United States and Germany, resulting in the
Federal Bureau of Investigation seizing copies of the
Times. The United States government recruited Laurence to document the
Manhattan Project in April 1945. Laurence became the only witness of the Manhattan Project, a detail realized by employees of
The New York Times following the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
1945–1998 Following
World War II,
The New York Times continued to expand. The
Times was subject to investigations from the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, a
McCarthyist subcommittee that investigated purported communism from within press institutions.
Arthur Hays Sulzberger's decision to dismiss a copyreader who had pleaded the
Fifth Amendment drew ire from within the
Times and from external organizations. In April 1961, Sulzberger resigned, appointing his son-in-law,
The New York Times Company president
Orvil Dryfoos. Under Dryfoos,
The New York Times established a newspaper based in Los Angeles. In 1962, the implementation of automated
printing presses in response to increasing costs mounted fears over
technological unemployment. The New York Typographical Union staged
a strike in December, altering the media consumption of New Yorkers. The strike left New York with three remaining newspapers—the
Times, the
Daily News, and the
New York Post—by its conclusion in March 1963. In May, Dryfoos died of a heart ailment. Following weeks of ambiguity,
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger became
The New York Timess publisher. Technological advancements leveraged by newspapers such as the
Los Angeles Times and improvements in coverage from
The Washington Post and
The Wall Street Journal necessitated adaptations to nascent computing.
The New York Times published "
Heed Their Rising Voices" in 1960, a full-page advertisement purchased by supporters of
Martin Luther King Jr. criticizing law enforcement in
Montgomery, Alabama for their response to the
civil rights movement. Montgomery Public Safety commissioner L. B. Sullivan sued the
Times for defamation. In
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the verdict in Alabama county court and the
Supreme Court of Alabama violated the
First Amendment. The decision is considered to be
landmark. After financial losses,
The New York Times ended its
international edition, acquiring a stake in the
Paris Herald Tribune, forming the
International Herald Tribune. The
Times initially published the
Pentagon Papers, facing opposition from then-president
Richard Nixon. The Supreme Court ruled in
The New York Timess favor in
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), allowing the
Times and
The Washington Post to publish the papers.
The New York Times remained cautious in its initial coverage of the
Watergate scandal. As
Congress began investigating the scandal, the
Times furthered its coverage, publishing details on the
Huston Plan, alleged wiretapping of reporters and officials, and testimony from
James W. McCord Jr. that the
Committee for the Re-Election of the President paid the conspirators off. The exodus of readers to suburban New York newspapers, such as
Newsday and
Gannett papers, adversely affected
The New York Timess circulation. Contemporary newspapers balked at additional sections;
Time devoted a cover for its criticism and
New York wrote that the
Times was engaging in "middle-class self-absorption".
The New York Times, the
Daily News, and the
New York Post were the subject of
a strike in 1978, allowing emerging newspapers to leverage halted coverage. The
Times deliberately avoided coverage of the
AIDS epidemic, running its first front-page article in May 1983.
Max Frankel's editorial coverage of the epidemic, with mentions of
anal intercourse, contrasted with then-executive editor
A. M. Rosenthal's puritan approach, intentionally avoiding descriptions of the luridity of gay venues. Following years of waning interest in
The New York Times, Sulzberger resigned in January 1992, appointing his son,
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., as publisher. The Internet represented a generational shift within the
Times; Sulzberger, who negotiated The New York Times Company's acquisition of
The Boston Globe in 1993, derided the Internet, while his son expressed antithetical views. @times appeared on
America Online's website in May 1994 as an extension of
The New York Times, featuring news articles, film reviews, sports news, and business articles. Despite opposition, several employees of the
Times had begun to access the Internet. The online success of publications that traditionally co-existed with the
Times—such as America Online,
Yahoo, and
CNN—and the expansion of websites such as
Monster.com and
Craigslist that threatened
The New York Timess
classified advertisement model increased efforts to develop a website.
nytimes.com debuted on January 19 and was formally announced three days later. The
Times published domestic terrorist
Ted Kaczynski's essay
Industrial Society and Its Future in 1995, contributing to his arrest after his brother
David recognized the essay's penmanship.
1998–present Following the establishment of
nytimes.com,
The New York Times retained its journalistic hesitancy under executive editor
Joseph Lelyveld, refusing to publish an article reporting on the
Clinton–Lewinsky scandal from
Drudge Report. nytimes.com editors conflicted with print editors on several occasions, including wrongfully naming security guard
Richard Jewell as the suspect in the
Centennial Olympic Park bombing and covering the
death of Diana, Princess of Wales in greater detail than the print edition. The New York Times Electronic Media Company was adversely affected by the
dot-com crash. The
Times extensively covered the
September 11 attacks. The following day's print issue contained sixty-six articles, the work of over three hundred dispatched reporters. Journalist
Judith Miller was the recipient of a package containing a white powder during the
2001 anthrax attacks, furthering anxiety within
The New York Times. In September 2002, Miller and military correspondent
Michael R. Gordon wrote an article for the
Times claiming that Iraq had purchased
aluminum tubes. The article was cited by then-president
George W. Bush to claim that Iraq was constructing
weapons of mass destruction; the theoretical use of aluminum tubes to produce nuclear material was speculation. In March 2003, the United States
invaded Iraq, beginning the
Iraq War.
The New York Times attracted controversy after thirty-six articles from journalist
Jayson Blair were discovered to be plagiarized. Criticism over then-executive editor
Howell Raines and then-managing editor
Gerald M. Boyd mounted following the scandal, culminating in a town hall in which a deputy editor criticized Raines for failing to question Blair's sources in article he wrote on the
D.C. sniper attacks. In June 2003, Raines and Boyd resigned.
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. appointed
Bill Keller as executive editor. Miller continued to report on the Iraq War as a
journalistic embed covering the country's weapons of mass destruction program. Keller and then-Washington bureau chief
Jill Abramson unsuccessfully attempted to subside criticism. Conservative media criticized the
Times over its coverage of
missing explosives from the
Al Qa'qaa weapons facility. An article in December 2005 disclosing
warrantless surveillance by the
National Security Agency contributed to further criticism from the George W. Bush administration and the
Senate's refusal to renew the
Patriot Act. In the
Plame affair,
a Central Intelligence Agency inquiry found that Miller had become aware of
Valerie Plame's identity through then-vice president
Dick Cheney's chief of staff
Scooter Libby, resulting in Miller's resignation. During the
Great Recession,
The New York Times suffered significant fiscal difficulties as a consequence of the
subprime mortgage crisis and a decline in
classified advertising. Exacerbated by
Rupert Murdoch's revitalization of
The Wall Street Journal through his acquisition of
Dow Jones & Company,
The New York Times Company began enacting measures to reduce the newsroom budget. The company was forced to borrow $250 million (equivalent to $ million in ) from Mexican billionaire
Carlos Slim and fired over one hundred employees by 2010. nytimes.com's coverage of the
Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, resulting in the resignation of then-New York governor
Eliot Spitzer, furthered the legitimacy of the website as a journalistic medium. The
Timess economic downturn renewed discussions of an online paywall;
The New York Times implemented a paywall in March 2011. Abramson succeeded Keller, continuing her characteristic investigations into corporate and government malfeasance into the
Timess coverage. Following conflicts with newly appointed chief executive
Mark Thompson's ambitions, Abramson was dismissed by Sulzberger Jr., who named
Dean Baquet as her replacement. Leading up to the
2016 presidential election,
The New York Times elevated the
Hillary Clinton email controversy into a national issue.
Donald Trump's upset victory contributed to an increase in subscriptions to the
Times.
The New York Times experienced unprecedented indignation from Trump, who referred to publications such as the
Times as "
enemies of the people" at the
Conservative Political Action Conference and tweeted his disdain for the newspaper and
CNN. In October 2017,
The New York Times published an article by journalists
Jodi Kantor and
Megan Twohey alleging that dozens of women had accused film producer and
The Weinstein Company co-chairman
Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. The investigation resulted in Weinstein's resignation and conviction, precipitated the
Weinstein effect, and served as a catalyst for the
#MeToo movement. The New York Times Company vacated the public editor position and eliminated the copy desk in November. Sulzberger Jr. announced his resignation in December 2017, appointing his son,
A. G. Sulzberger, as publisher. Trump's relationship—equally diplomatic and negative—marked Sulzberger's tenure. In September 2018,
The New York Times published "
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration", an
anonymous essay by a self-described Trump administration official later revealed to be
Department of Homeland Security chief of staff
Miles Taylor. The animosity—which extended to nearly three hundred instances of Trump disparaging the
Times by May 2019—culminated in Trump ordering federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions to
The New York Times and
The Washington Post in October 2019.
Trump's tax returns have been the subject of three separate investigations. During the
COVID-19 pandemic, the
Times began implementing data services and graphs. On May 23, 2020,
The New York Timess front page solely featured
U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss, a subset of the 100,000 people in the United States who died of COVID-19, the first time that the
Timess front page lacked images since they were introduced. Since 2020,
The New York Times has focused on broader diversification, developing online games and producing television series. The New York Times Company acquired
The Athletic in January 2022. ==Organization==