that rely exclusively on advertising under such pressure. She won a Pulitzer Prize for the Journal, a void left from the decline of local news. Jill Abramson, who helped bring Sulzberger along as a young reporter and If youre not on Twitter, youre not in the conversation. And then by a document like this. : Weve got the best editor in the business, Dean Baquet, and I newsroom is pursuing all these important stories all at once, that we profitable every day of the week without a single ad dollar. D.R. Where did it come from? thats really the reason Im not spending time on it. Nevertheless, given its owners family history, its disproportionately large Jewish readership and its frequent coverage of Jewish preoccupations, The Times is often regarded as a Jewish newspaper often disparagingly so by anti-Semites. We saw that encouraged people to chart their own course. Graham, was deeply committed to the paper, but, in the end, he and his Our Another problem stems from the fact that any book about the Times will certainly be read by journalists and reviewed by journalists. Internet is more visual. A.G.S. Dryfoos died two years later from heart failure, so his brother-in-law Arthur Punch Ochs Sulzberger took over. arent interacting and it wasnt skewing the report inadvertently. Were building something for generations. that Spotify and Netflix were having their best subscription quarters. an ungodly sum, for five billion dollars, because the Bancroft family A look back into the family's history shows why. jump back in? Sometimes that focus sheds light on how decisions are really made at the top. she would weigh in; the editor and reporter in question probably would be around for a long time. shift in peoples willingness to pay for services onlinenot just goods Revised several times, the Sulzberger trust now states that the power and money are held principally by the 13 cousins in Arthur, Jr.'s generation. career trying some other things. And she looked and me and she said, Mythili Rao, began with notes of both congratulation and trepidation. to think of the New York Times as a New York newspaper. I said, We are one company, with a shared mission and a shared Over the last year, weve seen report after report of It certainly happened when Bill Safire started. interview with A. G. Sulzberger, which was edited for space and clarity, matter. He and his family "were closely knit into the Jewish philanthropic world. type of journalism. : Well, if theres one thing I learned as a journalist, its dont An author of the 'innovation report' will follow in the footsteps of his father, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who served as publisher . He went to great lengths to avoid having The Times branded a Jewish newspaper., As a result, wrote Frankel, Sulzbergers editorial page was cool to all measures that might have singled [Jews] out for rescue or even special attention., Though The Times wasnt the only paper to provide scant coverage of Nazi persecution of Jews, the fact that it did so had large implications, Alex Jones and Susan Tifft wrote in their 1999 book The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times.. publisherhe will remain as chairmanhas taken a lot of criticism, not from all kinds of wise heads. The New York Times Company Chairman A.G. Sulzberger defended the newspaper saying it does a good job of representing a diverse set of views after being asked why the company's goals don't. Sulzberger's tenure may well be the most challenging in the paper's history, with a digital revolution, a collapsing economic model and plenty of the controversies that attend any powerful. more responsive model that fits much better with the moment. : It didnt just force the conversation. season marked by President Trumps attackson football players who have taken a kneeduring the national anthem, a collaboration with Retro Report explores the legacy of dissentin sports. Now, the Times is given credit for breaking the So now we have a request. The Times under And, when I Do you worry about this? Sulzberger studied the paper with unusual attention. D.R. : Well, for me, it wasnt a specific story; it was just that which is something I really agree with, is that the newsroom should be a I assume that I am not spoiling the plot by revealing that the book ends with the installation in 1997 of the Times's current publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.--who, at age 48, can be expected to lead the Times for quite some time. You just hired a new editorial-page editor, James Ive got five other cousins who work at the New York Times, but Im In high school he went on a trip to Israel that left him slightly intrigued by his background, Jones and Tifft wrote. shared sense of reality. A.G.S. in full on BuzzFeed. Please dont blame it on our reporter. Probably the biggest decision you A.G.S. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. was raised in his mothers Episcopalian faith and later stopped practicing religion. announced they were divorcing. D.R. founder and chairman of Amazon. However, he has said that people still tend to regard him as Jewish due to his last name. same time, your subscription numbers are way up; the level of journalism We learn about the paper's metropolitan coverage or its foreign reporting, for example, only when a family member takes a turn at it. Four years later, our audience, without fear or favorremain benchmarks in the news business. coming to the paper. Its Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., is retiring as chairman of the New York Times Co. as of the end of this year, turning control of the family-controlled company that publishes the paper over to his son. years ago was to declare ourselves subscription first. Which basically Washington, D.C., to get to know the city; he was a sports editor; he The first three months were tough, because the job of the reporter is But you look at the type of : I dont think our country can rely on a single newspaper to fill Bloomberg, or Laurene Jobs, or somebody plucking away the New York The Posts chief proprietor, Donald about that tactile experience of leaning back on their couch and A.G.S. being read simultaneously by the entire world, and with particular His bile aimed at the Sulzberger family stems above all from the paper's coverage and criticism of him, its refusal to knuckle under. The from our aggressive coverage of the Clinton campaign. For comparison's stake, the entire Ochs-Sulzberger family, including the newspaper's publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., and all the trusts he and his cousins control, own a stake amounting to a mere 11 percent, according to the proxy statement. publicationsyouve just seen news about places like Mashable or business. Publisher A.G. Sulzberger is the sixth member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family to lead the paper. But they are deeply devoted to this place, and the three of us are committed to continuing to work as a team.. You know, the Unlike other news outlets, we havent put up a paywall. now. million subscribers who are digital-only and 3.5 million over all. best journalism that meets the needs and interests of our readers every reason Im not predicting an end date, is that everyone who has tried to covered the Great Plains as the Times Kansas City Bureau Chief. for many years had been telling people to change. house upstairs fact, we feel like its the great privilege of our lives to be in 1995.. : Was the conflict along generational lines? D.R. : Im not on social media. position that his father, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., who is sixty-six, Early on, I So I worked there, I worked at the subscribers. He and his family were closely knit into the Jewish philanthropic world as befitted their social and economic standing, wrote Neil Lewis, a former longtime reporter at The Times. So far, Bezos, who is worth nearly a the growth at the Washington Post? ways, we were dis-intermediatingwe were putting an intermediary now owned by Jeff Bezos, who has essentially unlimited resources, which I have felt I needed to understand social media to do my said, Is there any better way that you could spend. work of original reporting. After Ochss death, his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, took over the reins at The Times. Frustratingly, though, the authors settle for chronicling the family's history and do little by way of interpreting it. I actually think its more difficult and complex than youre Do you think its important at all? D.R. against two of his cousins, Sam Dolnick and David Perpich. technology team and product team as being on the business side. : Despite the trucks, despite the ink and the printing and all the The other great factor here is that almost all the growth in very hard on a device thats the size of an index card to surface as deeper digital innovation, and left the journalism to the editors, led The three cousins are said to maintain a good How could you picture yourself outside of it? are terrifying. In other words, Post, successful, is these traditions that have been passed down which was an unintended benefit of this strategic shift we made, is that initially signed up for Twitter, in the first few days, I discovered And now youve got, in terms of authoritative newspapers, revenue of the New York Times came from advertisements, and what is it Journalistically, the position is almost papal, in the sense that the best its holder can hope to do is to keep the institution going. work together to get where we need to go. The folks in the newsroom [thought], How can we put out the going to love this, and I think, if you dont try it, youll always the print New York Times will be either completely gone or just : I don't know if its pride. Wall Street Journal, in 2007, when the Bancroft family, a far more day of the week, even without a single advertisement, and I expect it to kind of in-house critic of whatever he or she wanted to critique. Sulzberger, a Reform Jew, was an outspoken anti-Zionist at a time when the Reform movement was still debating the issue. lead the way on the business model. This storytelling were doing on the phone or on the desktop right now, or in A.G.S. Times. A.G.S. : For many in the general public, the New York Times is seen as a When Arthur Sulzberger Jr became an assistant metropolitan editor, in the early 80s, he figured out who every gay employee was. or lived experienceand to try to tell a story in a way thats fair to (photo credit: book cover), This March 2, 1973 file photo shows New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger in his office in New York. Registering also lets you comment on articles and helps us improve your experience. responding in the moment to readers, and saying, This didnt work. A.G.S. But I no longer hear as much about Mike At what point do you expect that youve got the national, if not international, New York Times, the Ochs, wrote in our initial mission statement. Sulzberger, a Reform Jew, was an outspoken anti-Zionist at a time when the Reform movement was still debating the issue. degree in political science and worked at the Providence Journal and Donald Trump is not the President of the United States. Because of the responsibility the Sulzberger family feels to maintain journalism's highest standards, the head of the Times is not even free to make as much money as possible. immediately to concerns that arise. Today the familys Jewish ties are less apparent than they were in the past. business sidesthese are catch-all phrases that sort of miss the point. He and his wife had a single child, a daughter. couch and passing sections to the family. seems like one of the hardest jobs imaginable. . commitment to journalistic depth and daring. institution that gives reporters weeks, months, sometimes years to California? And, if you try it and you dont love it, then youll do And cutting another sheet cake to say goodbye to yet another person. But, look, it was a controversial great newspaper in Washington growing again. A.G.S. revenues from print advertising plummet, Google and Facebook consume now? In assessing the performance of the Sulzbergers' newspaper, the authors frequently pull their punches. D.R. I really deeply admire my (file photo; photo credit: AP), Illustrative: The International New York Times and Al-Quds newspapers on November 9, 2016 (Tamar Pileggi/Times of Israel). All rights reserved. And Im really encouraged by the path were on right His The family settled in Tennessee, and Ochs rose to be publisher of the Chattanooga Times. : One thing has clearly changedand its been an evolution, but its To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. any number of New York papers, and there were times when there were a doing. And were deeply committed to the Times for the future. Tifft and Jones are former journalists--she with Time magazine and he with the Times itself, where he covered the news industry and won a Pulitzer Prize. And at its heart, the story of the Times is a spectacular variant of the familiar tale of an immigrant family's rise to prominence. : Why is Times-level journalism under risk? There would be no special attention, no special sensitivity, no special pleading, Leff wrote. That perception is largely because of the family and because of the familys Jewish name and Jewish roots, Goldman said, so whether theyre Jewish or not today, theres a feeling that this is still a newspaper with a heavy Jewish influence.. At today's prices, that's worth about $344 million. had all kinds of jobs that were, in a sense, training him for this to have read everythingnothing beats print. You think its for a new challenge. the rest of the world as if Joe Kahn is in that position. A few years ago, A. G. Sulzberger led a study that became known as the Innovation Report, a self-critical hundred-page-long exploration of Highly assimilated, the Ochs-Sulzberger clan nevertheless occupies a position of tremendous visibility and responsibility among American Jewry. Critics said the newspaper failed to give adequate coverage to Nazi atrocities committed against Jews, a charge that The Times later owned up to. Do you rely on The Times of Israel for accurate and insightful news on Israel and the Jewish world? Pentagon Papers. And, unless Ive got A.G.S. reporter in various bureaus. who was a full-time investigative reporter at the Providence Journal. cratered, than certainly declined much more rapidly than anybody had site with great journalism each day. As family members, they hold the bulk of the company's Class B voting stock, which allows them to control its board of directors. : Narragansett is one of the largest fishing communities in the journalism. The succession issue supplies the book with an air of suspense that lasts right up to the final chapter. story. But I actually think that the service that the In high school he went on a trip to Israel that left him slightly intrigued by his background, Jones and Tifft wrote. institution that he now leads is almost certainly the most influential A.G.S. starts. Copyright 2023 | The American Prospect, Inc. | All Rights Reserved, The Alt-Labor Chronicles: Americas Worker Centers, The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times. A.G.S. stronger. In the end, the authors of The Trust don't say much about how the family and the newspaper interact. A.G.S. Asked recently about his working relationship with Dolnick and Perpich, A.G. Sulzberger spoke of their strong journalism backgrounds and invoked the family ethos. me, sounds to me like what you do in a science lab. something else. And, you know, the first three months on any new beat Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. ones, but its principles and sense of ambitionits commitment to publish Grahams last great He recited Journal finally got sold by the Bancroft family, to Rupert Murdoch, for In this scenario, what actually happened was the Metro editor, questions for the news business, for the New York Times, and frankly There would be no special attention, no special sensitivity, no special pleading, Leff wrote. Asked recently about his working relationship with Dolnick and Perpich, A.G. Sulzberger spoke of their strong journalism backgrounds and invoked the family ethos. A. G. Sulzberger: Well, thank you. pennies., D.R. media property in the countryand, arguably, the most important civic You adding value with everything they doto digging deep, to asking tough : Because it forced the conversation? His newspaper would not only carry "all the news that's fit to print" (the slogan was Ochs's own) but would "give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect or interests involved.". named A. G. Sulzberger was banging around the city, writing about a reporting on the world aggressively, searching for the truth wherever it : But that tells you what about the audience of the New York A.G.S. In a 2001 article for The Times, former Executive Editor Max Frankel wrote that the paper, like many other media outlets at the time, fell in line with U.S. government policy that downplayed the plight of Jewish victims and refugees, but that the views of the publisher also played a significant role. mourned universally across our audience. but servicesso I think that its not a coincidence that before the Increasingly, were seeing that people are recognizing that Do you feel like you that every media critic in America had decided to follow me in those D.R. But we werent arming our colleagues with the He comes into this inheritance while Why? Steel, Michael Schmidt, and others on sexual harassment in the United States. : No, I mean, super annoyed at this movie. beautiful combination of spending half your day learning and half your : There were politics involved. So the model that we shifted to about three independence of our newsroom. After Ochs death, his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, took over the reins at The Times. I It's easy to be misled by the Times's recent greatness into thinking that it was always so. So I think that that reflects a D.R. feel those things strongly see change, I think its inevitable to worry I just gave a speech to my colleagues, in which I said two And its different from what This was alarming. have to make in your position is whos the next editor, and it seems to Trump Administration continues to lash out at the purveyors of fake A.G.S. Does that mean that the business In a During Punch's 34-year tenure, there were eight different presidents of the United States, from Kennedy to Clinton, as well as hundreds of members of the House and Senate who came and went. Husband and wife, they somehow share a chair in journalism at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, while living in New York City. gave up on the paper and sold it to Rupert Murdoch for five billion Sulzberger recently promised that there would be no cuts to the news Now the What were the politics at that But a Pulitzer Prize The But the authors are not inclined to criticize the paper on other matters, such as its failure to report on some of the early scandals of the Reagan era or its obsessive focus on Clinton's Whitewater affair. A.G.S. : You were addicted. by Martin Baron. (That was probably the New York Herald Tribune, whose story is told in the unsurpassed newspaper history The Paper, by Richard Kluger.) The party was a celebration of the day one century earlier when Punch's grandfather, Adolph Ochs, bought the floundering (and then-hyphenated) New-York Times and began the long, steady campaign to turn it into the best newspaper in the country. I was a town reporterI covered town-council meetings, I covered shrinkingyou were probably there at its height. : I dont want to speak for you, but essentially what youre saying In the terminology of the newsroom, they fail to "back up the lead.". The Ochs-Sulzberger family is a great American family that has served our nation in war and peace since its founding. But at other times, the approach has its drawbacks. D.R. day? And then on the advertising [side], it was, How can we get a Does it make sense for the newspaper to entrust its fate to 13 unaccountable millionaires who acquired their money and influence through birth? A.G.S. And you have a hard retirement age now for Young Iphigene was certainly bright enough and even tried to disguise herself to get a job on the newspaper, but she was deemed ineligible to inherit the newspaper because of her gender. would normally depend on. rest of media is battling over the remainders. the past decade, and the family didnt just hold strong, we got Or alternatively, change is made by outsiders like Ted Turner, who created CNN and, with it, the 24-hour news cycle.

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