New York: Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, former New York Times publisher and one of the prominent personalities in the paper’s history, has died on Saturday at the age of 86 at his home in Southampton, New York, after a long illness.
He was the father of current Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
During his career of around 34 years, the newspaper won 31 Pulitzer prizes, published the Pentagon Papers and won a libel case victory in New York Times vs. Sullivan that established important First Amendment protections for the press, The Associated Press reported.
In an era of declining newspaper readership, the Times’ weekday circulation climbed from 714,000 when Sulzberger became publisher in 1963 to 1.1 million upon his retirement as publisher in 1992. Over the same period, the annual revenues of the Times’ corporate parent rose from $100 million to $1.7 billion.
Sulzberger also improved the paper’s bottom line, pulling it and its parent company out of a tailspin in the mid-1970s and lifting both to unprecedented profitability a decade later.
In 1992, Sulzberger relinquished the publisher’s job to his 40-year-old son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., but remained chairman of The New York Times Co.
In 1997, he retired as chairman and chief executive of the company but stayed Sulzberger stayed on the Times Co. board of directors until 2002.
In an interview in 1990 with New York magazine, Sulzberger was typically candid about the paper’s readership.
“We’re not New York’s hometown newspaper,” he said. “We’re read on Park Avenue, but we don’t do well in Chinatown or the east Bronx. We have to approach journalism differently than, say, the Sarasota Herald Tribune, where you try to blanket the community.”
Dear TNT Reader,
At The News Tribe, our mission is to bring you free, independent, and unbiased news and content that keeps you informed and empowered. We are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism, as we understand that we are a platform for truth.
Apart from independent global news coverage, we also commit our unique focus on the Muslim world. In an age marked by the troubling rise of Islamophobia and widespread misrepresentation of Muslims in Western media, we strive to provide accurate and fair coverage.
But to continue doing so, we need your support. Even a small donation of 1$ can make a big difference. Your contribution will help us maintain the quality of our news and counteract the negative narratives that are so prevalent.
Please consider donating today to ensure we can keep delivering the news that matters. Together, we can make a positive impact on the world, and work towards a more inclusive, informed global society.
Donate Monthly Subscription Annual Subscription