The New York Times was founded as the New-York Daily Times on September 18, 1851, by journalist and politician Henry Jarvis Raymond (1820–69), then a Whig Party member and later second chairman of the newly organized Republican Party National Committee, and former banker George Jones. Sold for a penny (equivalent to 28 cents today), the inaugural edition attempted to address various speculations on its purpose and positions that preceded its release:[13]
We shall be Conservative, in all cases where we think Conservatism essential to the public good;—and we shall be Radical in everything which may seem to us to require radical treatment and radical reform. We do not believe that everything in Society is either exactly right or exactly wrong;—what is good we desire to preserve and improve;—what is evil, to exterminate, or reform.
The newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s.[14] On April 21, 1861, The New York Times departed from its original Monday–Saturday publishing schedule and joined other major dailies in adding a Sunday edition to offer daily coverage of the Civil War. One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone.[15]
The main office of The New York Times was attacked during the New York Draft Riots sparked by the beginning of military conscription for the Northern Union Army now instituted in the midst of the Civil War on July 13, 1863. At “Newspaper Row”, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with “Gatling” (early machine, rapid-firing) guns, one of which he manned himself. The mob now diverted, instead attacked the headquarters of abolitionist publisher Horace Greeley‘s New York Tribune until forced to flee by the Brooklyn City Police, who had crossed the East River to help the Manhattan authorities.[16]
The newspaper’s influence grew during 1870–1 when it published a series of exposés on William Magear (“Boss”) Tweed, leader of the city’s Democratic Party—popularly known as “Tammany Hall” (from its early 19th Century meeting headquarters) — that led to the end of the “Tweed Ring’s” domination of New York’s City Hall.[17] In the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical.[citation needed] In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland (former Mayor of Buffalo and Governor of New York State) in his first presidential campaign.[18] While this move cost The New York Times‘ readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years and slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of its new owner and publisher, Adolph Ochs of Chattanooga, Tennessee.[citation needed] The New York Times was acquired by Ochs, publisher of the Chattanooga Times, in 1896. The following year, he coined the paper’s slogan, “All The News That’s Fit To Print”, which has since been printed in a box in the upper left hand corner of the front page;[18] this was a jab[citation needed] at competing papers such as Joseph Pulitzer‘s New York World and William Randolph Hearst‘s New York Journal which were now being known for a lurid, sensationalist and often inaccurate reporting of facts and opinions known by the end of the century as “yellow journalism“. Under Ochs’ guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, (which were from the era of James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald which predated Pulitzer and Hearst’s arrival in New York), The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, and reputation. In 1904, The New York Times received the first on-the-spot wireless telegraph transmission from a naval battle, a report of the destruction of the Imperial Russian Navy‘s Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Port Arthur in the Straits of Tsushima off the eastern coast of Korea in the Yellow Sea in the western Pacific Ocean after just sailing across the globe from Europe from the press-boat Haimun during the Russo-Japanese War (one of the most important and history-changing naval battles in history).[citation needed] In 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began.[18] The New York Times‘ first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible. In 1920, a “4 A.M. Airplane Edition” was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening.[19]
In the 1940s, the paper extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the fashion section in 1946. The New York Times began an international edition in 1946. The international edition stopped publishing in 1967, when The New York Times joined the owners of the New York Herald Tribune and The Washington Post to publish the International Herald Tribune in Paris. The paper bought AM radio station WQXR (1560 kHz) in 1944.[20] Its “sister” FM station, WQXQ, would become WQXR-FM (96.3 MHz). Branded as “The Radio Stations of The New York Times“, its classical music radio format was simulcast on both the AM & FM frequencies until December 1992, when the big-band and pop standards music format of station WNEW (1130 kHz – now WBBR/”Bloomberg Radio”) was transferred to and adopted by WQXR; in recognition of the format change, WQXR changed its call letters to WQEW (a “hybrid” combination of “WQXR” and “WNEW“).[21] By 1999, The New York Times was leasing WQEW to ABC Radio for its “Radio Disney” format.[22] In 2007, WQEW was finally purchased by Disney; in late 2014, it was sold to Family Radio (a religious radio network) and became WFME.[23] On July 14, 2009, it was announced that WQXR-FM would be sold to the WNYC radio group who, on October 8, 2009, moved the station from 96.3 to 105.9 MHz (swapping frequencies with Spanish-language station WXNY-FM, which wanted the more powerful transmitter to increase its coverage) and began operating it as a non-commercial, public radio station.[24] After the purchase, WQXR-FM retained the classical music format, whereas WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz) abandoned it, switching to a talk radio format.
The New York Times is third in national circulation, after USA Today and The Wall Street Journal.[25] The newspaper is owned by The New York Times Company, in which descendants of Adolph Ochs, principally the Sulzberger family, maintain a dominant role. In 2009, article circulation dropped 7.3 percent to about 928,000; this is the first time since the 1980s that it has fallen under one million.[9] As of February 2013, the paper reported a circulation of 1,317,100 copies in weekdays and 1,781,100 copies on Sundays.[26] In the New York City metropolitan area, the paper costs $2.50 Monday through Saturday and $5 on Sunday. The New York Times has won 117 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper.[27]
In 2009, the newspaper began production of local inserts in regions outside of the New York area. Beginning October 16, 2009, a two-page “Bay Area” insert was added to copies of the Northern California edition on Fridays and Sundays. The newspaper commenced production of a similar Friday and Sunday insert to the Chicago edition on November 20, 2009. The inserts consist of local news, policy, sports, and culture pieces, usually supported by local advertisements.
In addition to its New York City headquarters, the newspaper has ten news bureaus in the New York region, eleven national news bureaus and 26 foreign news bureaus.[26] The New York Times reduced its page width to 12 inches (300 mm) from 13.5 inches (340 mm) on August 6, 2007, adopting the width that has become the U.S. newspaper industry standard.[28]
Because of its steadily declining sales attributed to the rise of online alternative media and social media, the newspaper has been going through a downsizing for several years, offering buyouts to workers and cutting expenses,[29] in common with a general trend among print news media.[30]
In 2016, reporters for the newspaper were reportedly the target of cyber security breaches. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was reportedly investigating the attacks. The cyber security breaches have been described as possibly being related to cyberattacks that targeted other institutions, such as the Democratic National Committee.[31]
Headquarters building
The newspaper’s first building was located at 113 Nassau Street in New York City. In 1854, it moved to 138 Nassau Street, and in 1858 to 41 Park Row, making it the first newspaper in New York City housed in a building built specifically for its use.[32]
The newspaper moved its headquarters to the Times Tower, located at 1475 Broadway in 1904, in an area called Longacre Square, that was later renamed Times Square in honor of the newspaper. The top of the building – now known as One Times Square – is the site of the New Year’s Eve tradition of lowering a lighted ball, that was started by the paper. The building is also notable for its electronic news ticker – popularly known as “The Zipper” – where headlines crawled around the outside of the building. It is still in use, but is now operated by the Reuters news agency. After nine years in its Times Square tower, the newspaper had an annex built at 229 West 43rd Street. After several expansions, the 43rd Street building became the newspaper’s main headquarters in 1960 and the Times Tower on Broadway was sold the following year. It served as the newspaper’s main printing plant until 1997, when the newspaper opened a state-of-the-art printing plant in the College Point section of the borough of Queens.
A decade later, The New York Times moved its newsroom and businesses headquarters from West 43rd Street to a new tower at 620 Eighth Avenue between West 40th and 41st Streets, in Manhattan – directly across Eighth Avenue from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The new headquarters for the newspaper, known officially as The New York Times Building but unofficially called the new “Times Tower” by many New Yorkers, is a skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano.[33][34]
New York Times v. Sullivan
The paper’s involvement in a 1964 libel case helped bring one of the key United States Supreme Court decisions supporting freedom of the press, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. In it, the United States Supreme Court established the “actual malice” standard for press reports about public officials or public figures to be considered defamatory or libelous. The malice standard requires the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case prove the publisher of the statement knew the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. Because of the high burden of proof on the plaintiff, and difficulty in proving malicious intent, such cases by public figures rarely succeed.[35]
The Pentagon Papers
In 1971, the Pentagon Papers, a secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States’ political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1967, were given (“leaked”) to Neil Sheehan of The New York Times by former State Department official Daniel Ellsberg, with his friend Anthony Russo assisting in copying them. The New York Times began publishing excerpts as a series of articles on June 13. Controversy and lawsuits followed. The papers revealed, among other things, that the government had deliberately expanded its role in the war by conducting air strikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions taken by U.S. Marines well before the public was told about the actions, all while President Lyndon B. Johnson had been promising not to expand the war. The document increased the credibility gap for the U.S. government, and hurt efforts by the Nixon administration to fight the ongoing war.[36]
When The New York Times began publishing its series, President Richard Nixon became incensed. His words to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger included “People have gotta be put to the torch for this sort of thing…” and “Let’s get the son-of-a-bitch in jail.”[37] After failing to get The New York Times to stop publishing, Attorney General John Mitchell and President Nixon obtained a federal court injunction that The New York Times cease publication of excerpts. The newspaper appealed and the case began working through the court system. On June 18, 1971, The Washington Post began publishing its own series. Ben Bagdikian, a Post editor, had obtained portions of the papers from Ellsberg. That day the Post received a call from the Assistant Attorney General, William Rehnquist, asking them to stop publishing. When the Post refused, the U.S. Justice Department sought another injunction. The U.S. District court judge refused, and the government appealed. On June 26, 1971 the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take both cases, merging them into New York Times Co. v. United States 403 US 713. On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court held in a 6–3 decision that the injunctions were unconstitutional prior restraints and that the government had not met the burden of proof required. The justices wrote nine separate opinions, disagreeing on significant substantive issues. While it was generally seen as a victory for those who claim the First Amendment enshrines an absolute right to free speech, many felt it a lukewarm victory, offering little protection for future publishers when claims of national security were at stake.[36]
