Behind the Times (69 page)

Critics have constantly told the
Times
how to run its business. Some suggestions were more helpful than others. The philosopher-catcher Yogi Berra observed, of life in general, “When you reach a crossroads, take it.” Arthur’s
Times
reached
several
crossroads in the early 1990s. It stood between the demands of its national ambitions and its rediscovered New York base; the interests of an older, elite readership and a new, less well-defined audience; the traditional desire to do one thing
well and the attraction of creating new products; old-fashioned print versus new media technologies. If Tina Brown’s views had merit, then Arthur needed also to stop and reconsider how far the
Times
ought to go down the road of reader friendliness.

He faced hard choices on a daunting journey. The obstacles that confronted Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., were arguably the greatest ever to face the publisher of the
New York Times.
All of his predecessors could at a minimum count on an intelligent audience that not only wanted to read the
Times
but felt that it
had
to read it. The paper’s authority was unchallenged. These certitudes no longer exist. The
Times
is now one of a number of national agenda setters, whose ranks now include the
Washington Post
, the
Los Angeles Times
, the
Wall Street Journal
, the newsmagazines, and a half-dozen television and cable networks. The
Times
of the future, Arthur acknowledged, must share its old authority, as well as its primary market, with the present print competition, and with prospective electronic data-base rivals. But he insisted that the
Times’
kind of journalism will never be supplanted. “Twenty-five years from now,
people will still need quality information, and that’s the business were in,” he said. “Given the way the human mind takes in knowledge, there will always be a
New York Times.
”

Perhaps. Whether, as Arthur Sulzberger hopes, a new audience attracted to quality can be brought together from a polyglot city suffering deep economic and social strains is, at the least, debatable. His palpable energy and intelligence are important pluses. So are his progressive social views, and the people he has attracted around him. Many of the quickest and the brightest among the ranks of young journalists still respond to the lure of newspaper work, to the prospect of working at their trade in New York City, and to the opportunity of being a member of the news-gathering and writing staff of the
Times.
He will be able to count on good company as he moves the
Times
into the next century. It will take all the intelligence and enthusiasm that he and his associates of a New Age generation can muster to lead the
New York Times
successfully into its own new age.

Unfortunately, the high-profile objectives that Arthur Sulzberger has pursued in his first three years as publisher—the triad of skin-deep diversity, managerial Demingism, and Downtown chic (Styles of the
Times
)—seem limp banners for rallying the forces of sustained, serious journalism.

1851

New York Daily Times
founded on September 18, a four-page paper produced by candlelight in downtown Manhattan loft.

1896

On August 18, Adolph S. Ochs buys near-bankrupt
Times
for $75,000. Later adopts a slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”

1905

Times
moves to Times Square. It is one of fourteen English-language dailies published in New York City.

1918

Times
wins first Pulitzer Prize for accurate and complete wartime coverage.

1919

Illustrated Daily News
started in New York; name later shortened to
Daily News.

1923

Henry Luce and Britten Haddon create
Time
, the weekly magazine.

1935

Ochs dies, succeeded as publisher by Arthur Hays Sulzberger.

1938

Family of Max Frankel flees Hitler’s Germany, emigrates to Washington Heights on the Upper West Side of New York City.

1940

Newsday
started in former garage in Nassau County by Alicia Patterson, with support of husband Harry Guggenheim.

1941

Attack on Pearl Harbor, America enters war against Japan, Germany, Italy.

1942

First
Sunday Times
crossword puzzle.

1943

A. M. Rosenthal, a CCNY student, becomes $12 a week campus stringer for
Times.

1945

World War II ends with unconditional surrender of Axis powers.

Times
science writer William L. Laurence, allowed by U.S. government to be sole chronicler of the Manhattan Project, rides aboard B-29 that drops atom bomb on Nagasaki.

1948

State of Israel founded.

1950

North Korea invades South Korea. Thousands of U.S. reserve officers from World War II eventually recalled to active duty, including Marine Corps Lieutenant A. O. Sulzberger.

1956

Time’s facsimile technology used to produce daily paper at Republican national convention in San Francisco (
Times
later sells off system on eve of “fax revolution”).

Two ocean liners collide off northeastern U.S. coast; one, the Andrea
Doria
, sinks with heavy loss of life. Max Frankel on
Times
rewrite desk during rescue drama.

1957

Sputnik I, Soviet earth satellite, inaugurates Space Age.

1960

A. H. Sulzberger suffers stroke, Orvil Dryfoos named publisher. Punch Sulzberger serves as “vice president in charge of nothing.”

1962–63

Bitter 114-day newspaper strike shuts down seven New York City papers. Times Company reports net loss of $1,831,000 for nine months ending September 30, 1963. (For comparable period the year before, the company reported net income of $1,552,000.) Strike settlement still leaves unresolved introduction of automation technology in city.

1963

New York Mirror
, Hearst’s morning tabloid, ceases publication.

Dryfoos dies after heart attack. Punch Sulzberger named publisher. A. M. Rosenthal returns to New York after duty as foreign correspondent, to become metropolitan editor.

John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas. Lyndon Johnson sworn in as president.

Critic Dwight Macdonald and others start
New York Review of Books
as alternative to
Book Review.

CBS News and NBC News increase evening broadcasts from fifteen minutes to thirty minutes each week night. Walter Cronkite anchors CBS broadcast; Chet Huntley and David Brinkley together anchor NBC.

1964

Supreme Court rules in favor of
Times
in libel case,
New York Times vs. Sullivan.

Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater.

1965

Malcolm X murdered in New York City.

Big Six printers’ union authorizes new strike. New York newspaper publishers’ “united front” crumbles. When
Times
is shut down and the morning
Herald Tribune
still publishes, latter’s circulation rises to 900,000. When
Times
returns,
Herald Trib
drops again to around 300,000.

U.S. troop commitment to Vietnam at 500,000 mark.

1966

Times
newspaper reports $100 million in advertising revenues. Total payroll reaches 5,300 employees, 700 of them working for news department.

Herald Tribune
merges with two afternoon papers, Hearst’s
New York Journal-American
and Scripps-Howard’s
New York World Telegram & Sun
, to form
World-Journal-Tribune
, or “Widget.” When Widget fails, only three papers remain in the city—the
Times
and two tabloids, the afternoon
Post
and the morning
Daily News.

1967

Punch Sulzberger discontinues publication of
Times
international edition.

Times Company offers stock shares to public, begins series of acquisitions and expansions.

Israeli Defense Forces defeat combined Arab armies in “Six Day War.” East and West Jerusalem united.

1968

Tet offensive by North Vietnamese main force troops and Viet Cong guerrilla units stuns U.S. public. Fighting reaches American Embassy grounds in Saigon.

Students occupy office of Columbia University president Grayson Kirk.

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., assassinated in Memphis.

Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles.

Lyndon Johnson announces he won’t run again.

Richard M. Nixon elected president, says he has plan to end U.S. involvement in Vietnam war.

Times
Washington columnist James Reston named executive editor and moves to New York.

Arthur Hays Sulzberger dies.

Clay S. Felker starts
New York
, weekly magazine offering service features and in-depth reports on life in the city (name and writers borrowed from Sunday supplement of old
Herald Tribune
).

1969

Thousands protest Vietnam war with march down Avenue of the Americas.

Census places New York City population at 7,964,200.

Mayor John V. Lindsay reelected to second term.

1970

Homosexuals march through Greenwich Village in show of “new militancy.”

New York State’s new abortion law goes into effect. In the city alone, 147 abortions are performed in first days after law takes effect.

Times
Op-Ed page inaugurated.

Reston returns to Washington, relinquishing executive editor’s job.

New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller reelected.

1971

Nine out of ten U.S. households own at least one television set.

U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of
Times
in Pentagon Papers case. The
Times
and
Washington Post
, among others, print excerpts of archival documents tracing U.S. role in Vietnam.

Flag of People’s Republic of China raised at UN.

1972

Bloomingdale’s celebrates one hundredth anniversary.

Last issue of the weekly
Life
magazine.

Nixon reelected in landslide.

A group of eighty
Times
women present publisher Sulzberger with a list of their grievances, including lack of comparable pay.

1973

Watergate story reported extensively in
Washington Post.

Max Frankel is
Times
D.C. bureau chief during unfolding scandals.

Abraham Beame elected mayor of New York.

Publisher Sulzberger adds titles Chairman and CEO of the New York Times Company.

1974

Watergate hearings—beginning of presidential impeachment process.

Nixon resigns, succeeded by Gerald Ford. Rockefeller later sworn in as vice president.

Times
women file discrimination suit in U.S. Southern District Court. Case eventually settled out of court, with promises of faster promotion for women and a cash settlement to make up for past inequities.

1975

“Saturday Night Live” premiere on NBC. TV viewing by average American adult tops two hours and fifteen minutes a day.

Saigon falls, renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Full impact of municipal fiscal crisis hits New York.

1976

New Jersey Weekly
, first of four regional Sunday sections, is introduced by
Times.
Weeklies follow in Long Island, Connecticut, and Westchester.

Democratic-primary race matches front-runners Bella Abzug and Daniel Patrick Moynihan for U.S. Senate.
Times
endorsement choice divides Sulzberger and cousin John B. Oakes.

Title of
Times
Sunday editor abolished. Frankel to editorial page. All news operations consolidated under Rosenthal.

Times
begins Weekend section.

Central Park smoke-in to promote legalization of marijuana.

Six-column format adopted by
Times
for news and advertising, except classifieds. Arts & Leisure section redesigned, with new guide to entertainment offerings. National classified ads begin in weekday paper.

Jimmy Carter elected president, Moynihan wins U.S. Senate race in general elections.

Living section started.
Times
Sunday circulation reaches 1.5 million.

1977

Cyrus R. Vance retires from
Times
board of directors to become secretary of state in Carter administration (Vance rejoins board in 1980).

Rupert Murdoch buys the
New York Post
, sole surviving afternoon paper in city. He also acquires
New York
magazine and the weekly
Village Voice.

Home section appears.

First dancer steps on floor at Studio 54.

Edward I. Koch elected mayor of New York City.

1978

SportsMonday introduced, followed by Business Day.

Dow Jones down fifty-nine points, worst week in its history.

The eighty-eight-day pressman’s strike. Murdoch breaks with publishers’ association and
Post
resumes publishing.

Big Six printers union wins lifetime job security; in exchange,
Times
allowed to complete conversion to computerized newsroom.

Science Times started.