History of The New York Times (1945–1998)
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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 plead 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 Times's publisher.
Technological advancements leveraged by newspapers such as the
The New York Times remained cautious in its initial coverage of the
Following years of waning interest in The New York Times, Sulzberger resigned in January 1992, appointing his son,
1945–1955: Continued period and staff changes
In November 1945, the
In December 1951, James died. He was succeeded by Turner Catledge.[4] Under Catledge, The New York Times established daily news conferences in his office, eliminating the role of bullpen editors—such as Neil MacNeil—who determined the placement of stories and their size relative to the paper.[5] Catledge staffed several positions,[6] including appointing Robert Garst and Theodore Menline Bernstein as associate editors.[7] According to Gay Talese, Catledge favored Bernstein; Garst was delegated to housekeeping roles and as acting managing editor.[8] In 1953, Times photoengravers went on strike for two weeks. During the strike, The New York Times did not publish for the first time in its history. Supported by most Times employees, staff who crossed the picket line were ostracized.[9] John Randolph was removed as picture editor in January 1954 after placing a photograph of newly-weds Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio kissing on the front page.[10] Clifton Daniel became The New York Times's Moscow correspondent—the only permanent Russian correspondent for a Western newspaper—in 1954; Catledge ordered Daniel back to New York on Arthur Hays Sulzberger's orders in November 1955 after Daniel developed an ulcer.[11]
1955–1961: McCarthyism and Sulzberger's resignation
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The New York Times was subject to intense investigations by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, a Senate subcommittee that advanced McCarthyism and investigated purported communism from within press institutions. From December 1955 to January 1956, forty-four subpoenas were issued against current or former employees of the Times. The investigations divided the staff of The New York Times, comprising current Communist Party USA members—including a copyeditor caught editing a Times dispatch from Moscow, former members turned conservatives, and opponents of McCarthyism.[12] The New York Times's management reckoned with retaining Ochs's values and denouncing the investigation; Times management believed that the paper was being specifically singled out for its opposition to Senate Internal Security Subcommittee chairman James Eastland's values, as well as those of his colleague William E. Jenner and subcommittee counsel J. G. Sourwine, by condemning segregation in Southern schools, the methods used by other congressional committees, and McCarthyism.[13]
Sulzberger believed that The New York Times was not a sacrosanct institution above a congressional investigation and stated his opposition to communism, urging employees not to plead the Fifth Amendment. A Times copyreader who did not reveal his political leanings appeared before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and plead the Fifth Amendment; Sulzberger dismissed the copyreader. The American Civil Liberties Union issued a letter of protest as a result of the dismissal. Sulzberger published the letter and his response in The New York Times. The letter polarized readers and was poorly received in some quarters, including by Ochs's nephew John Bertram Oakes. Sulzberger and his son-in-law, The New York Times Company president Orvil Dryfoos, drafted a statement in November 1955 to justify dismissing further employees.[14] The rising cost of newspaper production and the recession of 1958 cut into The New York Times's profits in the years following the investigations.[15] By 1959, Sunday edition numbers necessitated a west side expansion of 229 West 43rd Street. The annex was used primarily for publishing the Sunday issue, which had a circulation of 1,600,000 by 1967 and varied in weight between four and seven pounds.[16]
Dryfoos's role in The New York Times increased after 1958, when Sulzberger suffered a stroke.
1961–1964: Newspaper strike and Dryfoos's death
By 1962, increasing newspaper production costs, higher wage demands, and the emergence of television advertising presented existential threats to the newspaper industry. In response, publishers implemented automated
The strike immediately affected the routine media consumption habits of New Yorkers; some readers abandoned newspapers altogether, turning to television, news magazines, or books. Other readers who continued to read newspapers read The New York Times through the paper's Western edition mailed from California or turned to other newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and Women's Wear Daily, including out-of-state newspapers such as The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Christian Science Monitor. Financially, printers were supported by union funds and state insurance; newspaper and business owners were most affected.[24] New York mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. and labor negotiator Theodore W. Kheel were able to forge an agreement on March 31, 1963. The agreement guaranteed a thirty-five hour workweek, achieved a common contract expiration date, limited the use of automated equipment, and increased salaries.[25] The strike left New York with three remaining papers—The New York Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post—from a dozen in 1930.[26]
Following the strike, Dryfoos visited
1964–1966: Second Sulzberger era and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
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Dryfoos's death brought significant alterations to The New York Times. Following Sulzberger's accession, general manager and vice president Amory Bradford resigned; Bradford's reputation was tarnished after an article by A. H. Raskin following the strike besmirched him and accused him of being pugnacious.[25] Bradford was succeeded by Harding F. Bancroft, a descendent of churchman Richard Bancroft. The Times retained many of its executives and printed their names above the editorial page.[29] In January 1964, Sulzberger ceased publication of the Western edition that had routinely been published since October 1962. Though Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger was one of the wealthiest women in the United States at the time—her net worth was estimated by Fortune to be between US$150 million (equivalent to $1,314,258,373.21 in 2023) and US$200 million (equivalent to $1,752,344,497.61 in 2023) by 1968—the strike cut deep into the Times's reserves and circulation numbers for the Western edition decreased despite demand for the Times in the Pacific Coast.[30]
Sulzberger believed that The New York Times could not follow in his father or grandfather's steps, holding tradition inviolable but adjusting to nascent technologies and adapting to a precarious newspaper industry. The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal began to improve their coverage, occasionally providing superior political and economic coverage than the Times, and the Los Angeles Times led the United States in advertising lineage, bolstered by the diversified Times Mirror Company. The Los Angeles Times began to modernize its advertising sector with computing, analyzing circulation trends; The New York Times began modernizing in 1964 with the purchase of a Honeywell 200 that would perform the accounting work of twenty five employees. The Honeywell 200 was placed in a windowless room on the seventh floor of 229 West 43rd Street.[31] Despite his fiscally-driven changes, Sulzberger did not cede on The New York Times's coverage. The Times continued to publish full texts of speeches and documents such as the Warren Commission report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[32]
In an attempt to centralize executive authority and dismiss elderly employees, Sulzberger appointed Turner Catledge executive editor on September 1, 1964,[33] a newly created post that gave Catledge more control over The New York Times's content. Catledge's position allowed him to serve as a regent for the journalistically unaware Sulzberger.[34] Catledge's promotion drew the ire of Lester Markel, the displaced head of the Sunday Times, who was not supportive of his collectivist ambitions nor Bernstein's additions that drew from Markel's former prerogatives; most of all, Markel believed that The New York Times was no longer above other papers and no longer held itself in an esteemed position.[35] Dryfoos's death shifted editorial weight from Washington to New York, particularly after the resignation of Reston's associate Wallace Carroll.[36] Sulzberger did not seek to lose Reston, the Washington bureau chief, and made him an associate editor; Sulzberger appointed Tom Wicker as his successor on Reston's behest, much to Moscow correspondent Max Frankel's scorn.[37]
The New York Times erroneously claimed that thirty-eight witnesses saw or heard the
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On March 29, 1960, "Heed Their Rising Voices", an advertisement placed by the Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South, appeared in page twenty-five of The New York Times. The advertisement described the civil rights movement among black students, including an "unprecedented wave of terror" that police forces met protesters with. The advertisement spoke out against the actions taken by Montgomery Police Department in Montgomery, Alabama; a number of the advertisement's assertions were proven false. Montgomery Public Safety commissioner L. B. Sullivan, despite not being named in the advertisement, sued the Times for defamation seeking US$500,000 (equivalent to $5,149,606.3 in 2023) in damages. Alabama courts and the Supreme Court of Alabama sided with Sullivan before the case was taken to the Supreme Court.[42] In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Court unanimously ruled in a landmark decision[43] that newspapers cannot be held liable for defamatory statements unless made with actual malice.[42]
1966–1971: Changing landscape and additional papers
A shift in the New York newspaper landscape in 1966 significantly benefited The New York Times. In April 1966, three failing publications—the New York Herald Tribune, the New York Journal-American, and the New York World-Telegram—agreed to merge to form the New York World Journal Tribune. Union workers went on strike against the New York World Journal Tribune from April to September 1966,[44] delaying the paper's debut until the end of the strike; the World Journal Tribune would shut down in May 1967.[45] As The New York Times's circulation numbers increased to 875,000 in 1966—an increase of 100,000 from the previous year—and 900,000 following the New York World Journal Tribune's closure, Sulzberger increased the paper's advertising rates. The increased rates drew criticism from advertising director Monroe Green; Green would retire at the end of 1967, allowing Sulzberger to consolidate the advertising, production, and circulation departments under Andrew Fisher.[46]
In 1967, the international edition was discontinued, faced with an annual loss of US$1.5 million (equivalent to $13,706,586.83 in 2023) and decreasing circulation against the
Wicker's tenure as the Washington bureau chief was met by animosity from Catledge and Daniel. Greenfield, Rosenthal's protégé, embodied their efforts to replace the aloof and distant Wicker. Catledge, Daniel, Rosenthal, and Greenfield attempted to persuade Sulzberger into appointing Greenfield in February 1968; the men nearly succeeded, but Reston vehemently opposed the plan and stated that the staff of the Washington bureau would resign en masse. A visibly stressed Sulzberger informed Catledge that he would not go through with the plan and appointed Frankel instead. Upon learning of Sulzberger's intentions, Greenfield told Rosenthal, "Abe, don't ever ask me to come into this place again." Greenfield resigned on the spot and reportedly told Arthur Gelb that he "couldn't face cleaning out his desk", asking if Gelb would send him his favorite sweater and other items from his drawer. Greenfield returned to The New York Times in September 1969 as the paper's foreign editor under Rosenthal, who became managing editor.[49]
1971–1972: The Pentagon Papers and New York Times Co. v. United States
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Driven by a speech by Randy Kehler opposing the Vietnam War, RAND Corporation employee Daniel Ellsberg began photocopying pages of a Department of Defense report detailing the United States's involvement in the war, later known as the Pentagon Papers.[50] Throughout 1970 and 1971, Ellsberg attempted to approach prominent politicians that could disseminate the Pentagon Papers, including the foremost congressional opponent of the Vietnam War, George McGovern, in January 1971, and wrote a letter to The New York Times in November 1970 describing the war as "immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional". McGovern told Ellsberg that he should go to the Times; reluctantly, he called reported Neil Sheehan in February.[51] In March 1971, reporter Neil Sheehan met with Ellsberg and agreed to publicize the papers if The New York Times agreed to protect Ellsberg's identity.[52]
Several weeks later, Sheehan and his wife Susan, a writer for The New Yorker, checked into a hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts under a fictitious name to copy the papers.[53] When the Sheehans arrived in Cambridge, Ellsberg informed Neil that he could only read—not copy—the Pentagon Papers, because they would then be property of The New York Times. In Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002), Ellsberg stated that he was concerned that the Times would not publish the documents in full and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation could become aware of the papers. To Neil, Ellsberg's concerns were "about going to jail" and his cavalierness towards exposing the documents to members of Congress. After confiding to his wife, who told him to "Xerox it", Neil believed that Ellsberg was too dangerous and began photocopying the documents at multiple copy shops in Boston after he had left on vacation.[52]
The New York Times faced a race to publish the documents once they were photocopied. Greenfield stored the documents in his Manhattan apartment before they were moved to a suite at the New York Hilton Midtown. Sheehan and Allan M. Siegal primarily worked on sifting through the documents, meticulously citing each statement; other reporters joined in, including Hedrick Smith, E. W. Kenworthy, and Fox Butterfield. Despite the Times's legal counsel Lord Day & Lord advising against publishing the papers, nearly informing the Department of Justice, the Pentagon Papers appeared on the front page of The New York Times on June 13, 1971, though it was placed beside an article on the wedding of then-president Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia Nixon Cox, the New York City budget, and India–Pakistan relations.[50]
The Times must respectfully decline the request of the attorney general, believing that it is in the interest of the people of this country to be informed of the material contained in this series of articles.
—The New York Times, June 15, 1971[54]
The following day, The New York Times received a telex from then-attorney general John N. Mitchell telling the publication to halt its publication of the Pentagon Papers and to return the documents to the Department of Defense. After the Times stated its intention to continue publishing the papers, the Department of Justice sought a restraining order against the seven reporters and editors involved and the fifteen executives listed on the masthead. New York Times Co. v. United States moved quickly to the Supreme Court; oral arguments by The New York Times's legal defense, led by Alexander Bickel, were heard on June 26. In a 6-to-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the Times and The Washington Post, who began publishing the Pentagon Papers on June 18 after Ben Bagdikian persuaded the publication, could publish the Pentagon Papers.[50][54] Notably, The New York Times the following day did not contain images on the front page.[55]
In May 1972, the National Committee for Impeachment paid The New York Times US$17,850 (equivalent to $130,019.57 in 2023) for a two-page advertisement urging the House of Representatives to impeach Nixon for the war. Times pressmen derided the advertisement; New York Printing Pressmen's Union chairman Richard Siemers called the advertisement "traitorous" and "detrimental to the boys in Vietnam and prisoners of war". The pressmen demanded that the Times remove the advertisement and later asked for space in the paper to express their opinion to no avail. Nixon was pleased with the pressmen and sent an emissary to convey his thanks, charging the committee with violating the Federal Election Campaign Act. Nixon-appointed judge James L. Oakes sided with the committee in October.[56]
1972–1977: Watergate scandal and Central Intelligence Agency investigations
On June 17, 1972, the
The Washington Post's first major breakthrough occurred on August 1,[59] when Woodward and Bernstein reported that a US$25,000 (equivalent to $182,100.24 in 2023) cashier's check to Nixon's re-election campaign was deposited in a bank account operated by Barker. The Post missed the first edition but reported the story on the second, averting the potential for The New York Times to report on it.[60] According to former reporter Robert M. Smith, acting Federal Bureau of Investigation director L. Patrick Gray discussed details of the intrusion with Mitchell at a Washington, D.C. restaurant a month later. Smith informed an editor at the Times's Washington bureau, Robert H. Phelps, who took notes on the conversation; Smith left Washington the following day to attend Yale Law School. The bureau focused on the Republican National Convention in the days after the lunch and Phelps left on a monthslong trip to Alaska. Phelps later stated that he had "no idea" where the notes went.[61]
The New York Times remained delayed to The Washington Post's reporting, including reporting on an October 10 article that stated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation established that the Watergate burglary was an act of political sabotage committed by the Nixon re-election campaign. The Times article did not cover the broad conclusions but rather the accusations against Donald Segretti, a political operative who was the only individual named in the Post's reporting.[62] By 1973, The Washington Post cemented its lead in reporting the Watergate scandal through its trifecta of stories on the cashier's check, Mitchell's control of a secret fund to spy on Democrats, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry.[63] As Congress gathered information, the Post eased its coverage, giving The New York Times an opportunity to enhance its own coverage. The Times's efforts were spearheaded by Seymour Hersh, who exclusively reported on Dwight Chapin's departure and the first link between the White House and the operation.[64]
Woodward and Bernstein turned to The New York Times in April 1973, inviting Hersh to dinner on April 8.
The New York Times faced a push for inclusivity driven by second-wave feminism. In February 1972, the Women's Caucus of the Times was formed. The group sent Sulzberger a five-page letter in May detailing the paper's shortcomings in recruiting female employees. In 1974, Betsy Wade—a member of the caucus—sued The New York Times under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Elizabeth Boylan et al. v. New York Times Co.[b] would represent hundreds of women, from reporters to clerks. The lawsuit was settled in October 1978; A. M. Rosenthal later asserted that he would have had to testify against his employees. The Times was forced to pay US$350,000 (equivalent to $1,635,000 in 2023) and establish an affirmative action program.[71] Concurrently, a movement developed to incorporate the alternative honorific Ms. for women. Protesters gathered outside 229 West 43rd Street to advocate for Ms. to be included in The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Though Sunday editor Max Frankel supported the idea, Sulzberger and Rosenthal did not.[72]
Hersh remained skeptical of the Central Intelligence Agency following the Watergate scandal and he published several exposés into the agency. In October 1974, Hersh published an article on the Central Intelligence Agency's role in the
1977–1980: Financial difficulties and newspaper strike
Visions of vegetables dance in his sleepless head, along with recipes for pork chops liégeoise, treatises on termite detection, shopping guides to $44 canvas bags and $1,850 'Love' pendants from Tiffany.
The exodus of readers to suburban newspapers in New York City—such as Newsday in Long Island and Gannett newspapers in Westchester County—contributed to The New York Times's decline during the 1970s. Circulation decreased from 940,000 in 1969 to 796,000 in 1976 according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations and advertising lines decreased eight million from 1970 to 1975. Rosenthal identified the relative success of New York as a publication that specialized in service journalism. Rosenthal, an editor vehemently opposed on perceived attempts to compromise on the Times's news operations, balked at attempts from executives to add a food coverage section to The New York Times in 1974; his opposition subsided when Sulzberger began ordering cuts to newsroom spending. In June 1976, Rosenthal wrote a proposal to introduce additional sections to the Times, attempting to garner new audiences.[78]
A weekend section to The New York Times debuted in April 1976, followed by a home and sports section and culminating in a science section in November 1978.
In response to work rulings initiated by The New York Times, the New York Post, and the Daily News that drastically reduced manning requirements, pressmen began a trilateral strike against the papers on August 10, 1978, later joined by other unions.[81] The strike saw the emergence of newspapers established to capitalize on the landscape, including The City News, The New York Daily Press, The New York Daily Metro, and The Graphic.[82] Not The New York Times was published in September by a group of Times editors, including Christopher Cerf and George Plimpton.[83] During the strike, The New York Times missed the short-lived papacy of Pope John Paul I. Not The New York Times chronicled the papacy of Pope John Paul John Paul I, whose name is an amalgamation of John Paul I, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney, lasting nineteen minutes. Not The New York Times had included the factual detail that his successor would not be Italian; Pope John Paul II, who succeeded John Paul I, was Polish.[84] The strike ended on November 5,[82] though the New York Post resumed publication a month earlier after owner Rupert Murdoch signed a contract with the pressmen.[81]
1980–1986: Coverage of the AIDS epidemic and increasing circulation
Under Rosenthal, The New York Times's coverage of the beginning of the
In 1982, circulation numbers were estimated to be 929,000. In October 1985, The New York Times would reach one million daily papers, a record it would hold until September 1986.
Through opinionated phrases and unattributed characterizations, the article established a tone that cast its subject in an unfavorable light.
—The New York Times, August 7, 1985[89]
The New York Times published a profile of
Rosenthal didn't have a nervous breakdown, but he was close to it.
—Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, 1999[91]
Sulzberger expedited Rosenthal's retirement to prevent his son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., from having to remove Rosenthal himself. Rosenthal felt that the younger Sulzberger had contempt for the institution after he appeared in socks, scolding him after he appeared in Rosenthal's office. Sulzberger assumed that Rosenthal's publicized personal life—chronicling his relationships with actress Katharine Balfour, one of his secretaries, and newspaper editor Shirley Lord—was contributing to his erratic management. Rosenthal's behavior in the office concerned other employees; Harrison Salisbury compared Rosenthal to Oedipus, who is said to have gouged out his own eyes in Oedipus Rex after realizing he had committed patricide and incest. Sulzberger later told Alex S. Jones and Susan Tifft for The Trust (1999) that Rosenthal was close to a nervous breakdown. Despite concerns, Rosenthal continued to serve through his editorship, redesigning the Metropolitan Report and dispatching Maureen Dowd to Washington.[92]
The alternate honorific Ms. became an apparent issue by April 1986. Assistant managing editor Craig Whitney informed Sulzberger in September 1985 that, at a meeting with reporters and editors, the honorific was vehemently inquired about.[93] Feminist journalist Paula Kassell purchased ten shares of The New York Times Company to gain access to a shareholders meeting. In April 1986, she challenged Sulzberger to convene a panel of language experts to come to a decision. Kassell was informed that the debate would not need to take place because The New York Times had begun to adopt the new style. Editors of Ms. walked into the Times's offices to give a basket of flowers for Rosenthal.[72] The policy was officially changed in June.[91] Simultaneously, Sulzberger attempted to persuade Rosenthal to retire, inviting him to an Italian restaurant that month and offering him an opinion column. In September, Rosenthal informed his son and Associated Press reporter Andrew that Max Frankel would succeed him and Arthur Gelb would become managing editor.[94] Rosenthal officially resigned on October 11, 1986.[95]
1986–1992: Newsroom changes and Sulzberger's resignation
Frankel's tenure as executive editor was highlighted by characteristic and ideologic change from his predecessor. Frankel complimented editors whom he felt had written great articles and bantered with employees. He focused on covering the AIDS epidemic with greater fervor, assigning several employees to the task, but remained wary. The prohibition on using the word "gay" was not lifted until July 1987.[96] Frankel viewed The New York Times's volumetric prose unfavorably compared to newspapers such as USA Today, whose articles were significantly shorter. An amateur painter, he focused on the design of the Times and believed that stories should be able to be read in full on the front page, much to the displeasure of Sulzberger's wife Carol.[97] Despite defining himself antithetically to Rosenthal,[95] Frankel would take an aggressive approach to the front page, later describing his position as "authoritarian and dictatorial".[98] Rosenthal requested that Frankel appoint John Vinocur as managing editor and hire Andrew. Frankel rejected promoting Vinocur as he was not familiar with him—Vinocur would go on to run the International Herald Tribune; he had worked with Andrew before at the Associated Press and hired him.[99]
Several editors positioned themselves to replace outgoing Washington bureau chief Bill Kovach, who was appointed in 1979 in an effort to decrease the bureau's autonomy. Frankel's accession furthered the disdain Kovach had for him; Frankel did not place Kovach's name on the masthead. Kovach resigned in 1986 to work for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The need for a bureau chief increased amid the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal that was the largest political story since the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Deputy Washington editor Howell Raines was rejected for his weak foreign policy and his "tendency to not think conceptually". Frankel rejected former London bureau chief R. W. Apple Jr. after harshly reviewing his London chiefship and national editor Dave Jones out of fear that he would "coddle and shelter" the bureau's staff rather than challenging them. Whitney was ultimately selected despite lacking experience in Washington. To that end, he selected Apple and Paris correspondent Judith Miller as deputy editors. The idea of hiring Miller came from the younger Sulzberger.[100]
Frankel sought to advance The New York Times's Washington coverage against The Washington Post. To wit, he delegated determining which stories the late-night staff should match to the Washington bureau rather than the night editors in New York; the Washington Bureau received a copy of The Washington Post at 11 p.m. The Times achieved initial success with Whitney, whose coverage of the Iran–Contra affair and George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole's jostling for the Republican presidential nomination earned praise. The paper's successes would diminish after then-senator Gary Hart dropped out of the Democratic presidential primaries amid a report from the Miami Herald alleging that he engaged in an extramarital affair with Donna Rice Hughes. Within the week, Whitney sent thirteen letters to presidential candidates demanding their biographical, sexual, professional, and personal information. The perceived invasion of privacy was denounced by columnists Anthony Lewis and Rosenthal. Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko telephoned the Times's public relations office to ask for the marital histories of Sulzberger and the editors.[101] Frankel was displeased with Miller's performance, describing her as " dismissive, mistrustful, and disrespectful" in a letter to Whitney.[102]
My view of this bureau before I got here was that it was fat and lazy—a few terrific seasoned reporters, a few terrific but unseasoned Washington reporters, and a whole room full of just average ones.
—Craig Whitney, 1987[103]
In July 1987,
In November 1988,
By 1987, Sulzberger had demonstrated a waning interest in The New York Times, becoming chairman of the
1992–1994: Third Sulzberger era and the Internet
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In September 1992, Sulzberger Jr. announced that he would shift the posts of three editors,
The
Frankel intended to retire in 1994, exacerbated by the impending customary age at which he should retire, his wife Joyce Purnick's breast cancer diagnosis. In June 1993, Frankel told The New Yorker that he was overworked and overburdened. In his tenure, The New York Times was criticized for naming the woman who accused William Kennedy Smith of rape in 1991, an incident that drew righteous indignation from tabloids,[125] faced dissenting opinions from within the Washington bureau, and issued a front-page correction. On April 7, 1994, Frankel resigned.[126] Sulzberger Jr. named Lelyveld as his replacement.[127] In one of his final decisions, Frankel promoted metropolitan editor Gerald M. Boyd to assistant managing editor in September 1993 and placed his name first on the masthead, putting Boyd in contention to replace him. The appointment created a rift between Lelyveld and Boyd, the former of whom felt he was not qualified enough. Lelyveld had instructed Boyd on how the lede story for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing should be written; Boyd dismissed him, giving Lelyveld admiration for Boyd.[128] Lelyveld did not have an affection for any particular editor to serve as his managing editor, particularly Boyd, but selected Gene Roberts, the aging executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer who let Lelyveld report on the Chappaquiddick incident in 1969.[129]
1994–1998: The New York Times Electronic Media Company and changing landscape
By 1994, several employees of The New York Times had begun to access the Internet through Internet service providers such as Panix and the Pipeline,[130] the latter of which was created by The New York Times Magazine alumnus James Gleick.[131] Technology reporter John Markoff, who notably covered the pursuit of computer hacker Kevin Mitnick,[132] established an email address under the domain name nyt.com in 1990. Markoff moved the address to Internex, an Internet service provider in Menlo Park, California, in 1994. The email was compromised by Mitnick, who erroneously believed that Markoff was attempting to track him down; in actuality, physicist Tsutomu Shimomura had assisted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with locating Mitnick at the time and he was arrested weeks later.[133] In July 1994, internet services manager Gordon Thompson sent the first email communiqué to the nytimes.com address from his Panix account. In November, senior information and technology editor Richard J. Meislin created a web page on an internal server to list resources for Times editors known as Navigator, later made public. It remained regularly updated until February 2007 and sporatically updated until 2014.[130]
Convinced of the capabilities of the Internet by a dinner he had with Meislin and Thompson,
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Tk_arrest.jpg/220px-Tk_arrest.jpg)
In June 1995, two packages mailrooms of The New York Times and The Washington Post addressed to then-deputy managing editor Warren Hoge and then-deputy managing editor Michael Getler respectively. The packages contained a copy of Industrial Society and Its Future (1995), a Luddite essay. The manifesto was written by Ted Kaczynski, a domestic terrorist known as the "Unabomber" who mailed and planted sixteen mail bombs between 1978 and 1995, killing three people and injuring twenty-three others. The packages contained a note stating that he—addressed as "FC" for "Freedom Club"—would "desist from terrorism"[140] if the publications published Industrial Society and Its Future. The Washington Post publisher Donald E. Graham and executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. met with Sulzberger Jr. and Lelyveld to coordinate their response. Joined by Post president Boisfeuillet Jones Jr., the men met with FBI director Louis Freeh and attorney general Janet Reno. Freeh and Reno suggested that the publications publish the manifesto as a pamphlet or book, an idea the men rejected for its difficulty. Kaczynski's essay appeared on September 19.[d] Critics, such as the American Journalism Review, objected to giving into such demands in fear of creating a copycat effect, though The Washington Post reported that most readers from outside of the Washington, D.C. area requested reprints and souvenir copies. Sulzberger Jr. defended the publication of Kaczynski's essay citing the credibility of his threat given his experience. Kaczynski's brother David recognized the penmanship of the essay in the Times and reported his suspicions to the FBI; Kaczynski was arrested in April 1996.[142]
On January 19, 1996, at exactly 11:59 p.m., nytimes.com was launched at the Hippodrome Building but formally announced on January 22 in order to give engineers the weekend to resolve any issues. Sulzberger Jr., Lelyveld, and Lewis sent a case of French champagne to the building.[143] The website required users to register an account; according to Nisenholtz, this was done for company-wide and advertiser analytics purposes. Jim Romenesko, then-writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, was the first person to register an account on the site after attempting to access it for a month.[144] In the initial hours following the website's official launch, one reader was recorded to have registered every second. By March 1997, one million people had registered an account in comparison to the 1.1 million weekday print subscribers and the 1.6 million print subscribers on Sundays. The website was rudimentary, consisting of four stories and minimal photographs and designs, though it contained an interactive crossword puzzle and a calculator for determining the income tax one would pay under tax reforms promised by Bob Dole, the Republican nominee in the 1996 presidential election. nytimes.com was free to access and did not implement a paywall for readers in the United States, though an international paywall of US$35 (equivalent to $67.99 in 2023) a month was put into effect until July 1997.[145]
Notes
- ^ In an interview with Howard Simons, the managing editor of The Washington Post at the time, Woodward stated he and Bernstein had "a couple of dinners". Hersh only recalls one dinner.[65]
- ^ Elizabeth Boylan is Wade's married name. Wade chose to use her married name to ensure she would appear first in the list of the six initial plaintiffs in the case.[70]
- ^ Meislin claimed that he typed Lelyveld's name into a web browser during the dinner while eating rabbit, factual details that Lelyveld could not recall.[130]
- ^ Only The Washington Post published Industrial Society and Its Future as an insert as The New York Times did not have the mechanical capacity to publish it.[141]
References
Citations
- ^ Berger 1951, p. 541-542.
- ^ Berger 1951, p. 544.
- ^ Berger 1951, p. 553.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 49.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 68.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 261.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 140.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 539.
- ^ Talese 1969, p. 222-223.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 261-262.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 84-85.
- ^ Talese 1969, p. 286-287.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 289.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 290-291.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 300.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 547.
- ^ a b Time 1961.
- ^ Dunlap 2014d.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 27.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 343.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 345.
- ^ Dunlap 2016g.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 364-368.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 368-373.
- ^ a b Talese 1981, p. 378.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 364.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 396.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 380-383.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 395-397.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 399.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 403-405.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 407.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 408.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 405-406.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 409.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 413-414.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 416.
- ^ Dunlap 2016c.
- ^ Dowd 1984.
- ^ Abate 2017.
- ^ Rosenthal 1964.
- ^ a b Dunlap 2017d.
- ^ Liptak 2021.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 541.
- ^ Bonanos 2016.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 543-544.
- ^ Talese 1981, p. 545.
- ^ Dunlap 2017g.
- ^ Dunlap 2015c.
- ^ a b c Chokshi 2017.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 78-79.
- ^ a b Scott 2021.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 35.
- ^ a b Dunlap 2017e.
- ^ Dunlap 2014b.
- ^ Dunlap 2017f.
- ^ Lewis 1972.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 166-169.
- ^ Bernstein & Woodward 1972.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 172.
- ^ Pérez-Peña 2009.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 173.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 181.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 186-187.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 188.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 188-189.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 191.
- ^ Phelps 2009, p. 199.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 438.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 37-38.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 37-39.
- ^ a b Dunlap 2017b.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 532-535.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 543.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 548.
- ^ Salisbury 1980, p. 557.
- ^ a b c Dunlap 2015a.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 22-24.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 23.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 24.
- ^ a b Dewar 1978.
- ^ a b Stetson 1978.
- ^ Traub 2020.
- ^ Dunlap 2015d.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 54-56.
- ^ Dunlap 2015e.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 60-61.
- ^ Dunlap 2014a.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 63.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 61-64.
- ^ a b Nagourney 2023, p. 69.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 68-69.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 70.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 71-72.
- ^ a b Nagourney 2023, p. 77.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 77-78.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 84.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 85.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 83.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 88-93.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 93-94.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 96.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 97.
- ^ Butterfield 1987.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 96-97.
- ^ Grossman 1997.
- ^ Kastor 1987.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 97-98.
- ^ The New York Times 2001.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 100.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 139-140.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 179.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 124.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 128.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 126-127.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 131.
- ^ The New York Times 1992.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 133.
- ^ Boyer 1994.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 142-144.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 146-148.
- ^ Lewis 1994.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 148.
- ^ Katz 1994.
- ^ Kurtz 1991.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 153-153.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 164.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 166-167.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 169.
- ^ a b c Dunlap 2017a.
- ^ Batelle 1994.
- ^ O'Brien 1996.
- ^ a b Markoff 2017.
- ^ Trimble 2002, p. 4.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 173-174.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 175.
- ^ The New York Times 1995b.
- ^ a b Trimble 2002, p. 5.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 180.
- ^ The New York Times 1995a.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 191.
- ^ Farhi 2015.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 181-182.
- ^ Dunlap 2016a.
- ^ Nagourney 2023, p. 183-185.
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