The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
History
The company was founded by
Henry Jarvis Raymond
Henry Jarvis Raymond (January 24, 1820 – June 18, 1869) was an American journalist, politician, and co-founder of ''The New York Times'', which he founded with George Jones. He was a member of the New York State Assembly, Lieutenant Governor ...
and
George Jones
George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song " He Stopped Loving Her Today", ...
in New York City. The first edition of the newspaper ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', published on September 18, 1851, stated: "We publish today the first issue of the New-York Daily Times, and we intend to issue it every morning (Sundays excepted) for an indefinite number of years to come."
The company moved into the cable channel industry, purchasing a 40% interest in the Popcorn Channel, a theatrical movie preview and local movie times, in November 1994. In 1996, it expanded upon its broadcasting by purchasing Palmer Communications, owners of
WHO-DT
WHO-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Grand Avenue in downtown Des Moines, and its transmitter is located in A ...
in
Des Moines and
KFOR in
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...
.
The company completed its purchase of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' 50 percent interest in the ''
International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') for US$65 million on January 1, 2003, becoming the sole owner.
On March 18, 2005, the company acquired
About.com
Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...
, an online provider of consumer information, for US$410 million. In 2005, the company reported revenues of US$3.4 billion to its
investor
An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...
s.
The Times, on August 25, 2006, acquired Baseline StudioSystems, an online database and research service on the film and television industries for US$35 million.
The company announced on September 12, 2006, its decision to sell its Broadcast Media Group, consisting of "nine network-affiliated television stations, their related Web sites and the digital operating center".
''The New York Times'' reported on January 4, 2007, that the company had reached an agreement to sell all nine local television stations to the private equity firm
Oak Hill Capital Partners
Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in New York City, with more than $19 billion of committed capital from entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Rob ...
, which then created a holding company for the stations,
Local TV LLC
Local TV LLC was a television broadcasting company owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners which operated 20 television stations in the United States. The group was formed in 2006 by the acquisition of nine television stations owned by The New York T ...
.
The company announced that it had finalized the sale of its Broadcast Media Group on May 7, 2007, for "approximately
$575 million".
On May 7, 2007, the company announced that its About.com web information service was acquiring Consumersearch.com, a Web site that compiles reviews of consumer products, for $33 million in cash.
In 2007 the company moved from 229 West 43rd Street to
the New York Times Building
The New York Times Building is a 52-story skyscraper at 620 Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, on the west side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Its chief tenant is the New York Times Company, publisher of ''The New York Time ...
at 620 Eighth Avenue, on the west side of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
, between 40th and 41st streets across from the
Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Bus Terminal.
On July 14, 2009, the company announced that
WQXR was to be sold to
WNYC
WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...
, which moved the station to 105.9 FM and began to operate the station as non-commercial on October 8, 2009. This US$45 million transaction, which involved
Univision Radio's
WCAA moving to the 96.3 FM frequency from 105.9 FM, ended the Times' 65-year-long ownership of the station.
In December 2011, the company sold its Regional Media Group to
Halifax Media Group
Halifax Media Group was an American newspaper company owning more than 30 newspapers in five Southeastern U.S. States. It was founded on March 31, 2010 when a group of investors purchased ''The Daytona Beach News-Journal'' from the Davidson fami ...
, owners of ''
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
''The Daytona Beach News-Journal'' is a Florida daily newspaper serving Volusia and Flagler Counties.
It grew from the ''Halifax Journal'', which was started in 1883. The Davidson family purchased the newspaper in 1928 and retained control unt ...
'', for $143 million. ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' and ''The Telegram & Gazette'' of
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
were not part of the sale. In 2011, the Times sold Baseline StudioSystems back to its original owners, Laurie S. Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein, majority shareholders of
Project Hollywood LLC.
Facing falling revenue from print advertising in its flagship publication in 2011, ''The New York Times'', the company introduced a
paywall to its website. As of 2012, it had been modestly successful, garnering several hundred thousand subscriptions and about $100 million in annual revenue.
In 2013, the New York Times Company sold ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' and other New England media properties to
John W. Henry
John William Henry II (born September 13, 1949) is an American businessman and investor and the founder of John W. Henry & Company, an investment management firm. He is the principal owner of Liverpool Football Club, the Boston Red Sox, ''The B ...
, the principal owner of the
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...
. According to the Times Company, the move was made in order to focus more on its core brands.
After forming an editorial partnership with the New York Times in 2015, The Wirecutter was acquired by the Times in October 2016 for a reported $30 million.
In March 2020, the New York Times Company acquired subscription-based audio app, Audm.
In July 2020, the New York Times Company acquired podcast production company
Serial Productions. The same month, the company appointed
chief operating officer
A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...
Meredith Kopit Levien to the position of CEO.
In January 2022, the New York Times Company announced that it would acquire ''
The Athletic
''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...
'', a subscription-based sports news website. The $550 million deal closed the following month, and ''The Athletic''
's co-founders, Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, were to stay with the publication, which would continue to be run separately from the ''Times''. Later that month, it acquired
Wordle
''Wordle'' is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle, and owned and published by The New York Times Company since 2022. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for ...
, an Internet word puzzle game that grew from 90 players in October 2021 to millions at the time of purchase.
ValueAct Capital took a stake in the company in August 2022.
ValueAct aims to encourage the company to more actively pursue the sale of "bundled" subscriptions to its various offerings.
[
]
Radio stations
The paper bought AM radio station WQXR (1560kHz) in 1944. Its "sister" FM station, WQXQ, would become WQXR-FM (96.3MHz). Branded as "The Stereo Stations of ''The New York Times''", its classical music radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...
was simulcast on both the AM & FM frequencies until December 1992, when the big-band and pop standards music format of station WNEW (1130kHz – now WBBR
WBBR (1130 AM) is a Class A clear-channel radio station licensed to New York, New York. It serves as the flagship station of Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg L.P.'s radio service. The station offers general and financial news reports 24-hours a ...
/"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"). By 1999, ''The New York Times'' was leasing WQEW to ABC Radio for its " Radio Disney" format. In 2007, WQEW was finally purchased by Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
; in late 2014, it was sold to Family Radio (a religious radio network) and became WFME. On July 14, 2009, it was announced that WQXR-FM would be sold to the WNYC
WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...
radio group who, on October 8, 2009, moved the station from 96.3 to 105.9MHz (swapping frequencies with Spanish-language station WXNY-FM
WXNY-FM (96.3 FM ''La X 96.3'') is a commercial radio station that broadcasts an Hispanic rhythmic format. It is licensed to New York City, and serves the New York metropolitan area. WXNY is owned by Uforia Audio Network and its transmitter i ...
, which wanted the more powerful transmitter to increase its coverage) and began operating it as a non-commercial, public radio station.
Company holdings
Alongside its namesake newspaper, the company also owns ''the New York Times International Edition
''The New York Times International Edition'' is an English-language daily newspaper distributed internationally by the New York Times Company. It has been published in two separate periods, one from 1943 to 1967 and one from 2013 to the prese ...
'' and their related digital properties including NYTimes.com, as well as various brand-related properties.
Ownership and leadership
Since 1967, the company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
under the symbol NYT. Of the two categories of stock, Class A and Class B, the former is publicly traded and the latter is held privately—largely (over 90% through The 1997 Trust) by the descendants of Adolph Ochs, who purchased ''The New York Times'' newspaper in 1896.
Carlos Slim loan and investment
On January 20, 2009, ''The New York Times'' reported that its parent company, the New York Times Company, had reached an agreement to borrow $250million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim
Carlos Slim Helú (; born 28 January 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the '' Forbes'' business magazine. He derived his fortune from h ...
, "to help the newspaper company finance its businesses". The New York Times Company later repaid that loan ahead of schedule. Since then, Slim has bought large quantities of the company's Class A shares, which are available for purchase by the public and offer less control over the company than Class B shares, which are privately held. Slim's investments in the company included large purchases of Class A shares in 2011, when he increased his stake in the company to 8.1% of Class A shares, and again in 2015, when he exercised stock options—acquired as part of a repayment plan on the 2009 loan—to purchase 15.9million Class A shares, making him the largest shareholder. As of March 7, 2016, Slim owned 17.4% of the company's Class A shares, according to annual filings submitted by the company. While Slim is the largest shareholder in the company, his investment only allows him to vote for Class A directors, a third of the company's board.
Board of directors
* A. G. Sulzberger, chairman of the New York Times Company and publisher of the New York Times
* Aman Bhutani, CEO of GoDaddy
GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware.
, GoDaddy has more than 21 million customers and over 6,600 employees worldwide. The ...
* Manuel Bronstein, CPO of Roblox
''Roblox'' () is an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. Created by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in 2004 and released i ...
* Beth Brooke, former global vice chair of public policy for Ernst & Young
Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...
* Rachel Glaser, CFO of Etsy
Etsy, Inc. is an American e-commerce company focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. These items fall under a wide range of categories, including jewelry, bags, clothing, home décor and furniture, toys, art, as well as craft ...
* Arthur Golden
Arthur Sulzberger Golden (born December 6, 1956) is an American writer. He is the author of the bestselling novel ''Memoirs of a Geisha'' (1997).
Early life
Golden was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of Ruth (née Sulzberger) and Ben ...
, bestselling author
* Hays Golden, former AIG
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...
executive
* Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO of the New York Times Company
* Brian McAndrews
Brian P. McAndrews is an American marketing and advertising executive, sports team owner who is a former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Pandora Media, Inc.
Career
McAndrews served as Product Manager of General Mills, Inc. from ...
, former chairman and CEO of Pandora Media
Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the " Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying in ...
* David Perpich, former president of Wirecutter
* John W. Rogers Jr., founder of Ariel Investments
Ariel Investments is an investment company located in Chicago, Illinois. It specializes in small and mid-capitalized stocks based in the United States.
History
Ariel was founded in 1983 by John W. Rogers, Jr., who is chairman and Co-CEO of the ...
* Doreen Tobin, former CFO of Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas ...
* Rebecca Van Dyck, CMO of Reality Labs
Reality Labs is a business of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as Quest, and online platforms such as Horizon W ...
Community awards
The company sponsors a series of national and local awards designed to highlight the achievements of individuals and organizations in different realms.
In 2007, it inaugurated its first Nonprofit Excellence Award, awarded to four organizations "for the excellence of their management practices". Only nonprofits in New York City, Long Island, or Westchester were eligible.
Jointly with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
, the New York Times Company sponsors an award to honor librarians "for service to their communities". The ''I Love My Librarian!'' award was given to ten recipients in December 2008, and presented by the New York Times Company president and CEO Janet L. Robinson, Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian, and Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
. The award has been given to ten exceptional librarians annually since that date.
In May 2009, the company launched The New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award to honor an American playwright who had recently had his or her professional debut in New York. The first winner was Tarell Alvin McCraney
Tarell Alvin McCraney (born October 17, 1980) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. He is the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.
He co-wrote the 2016 film ''Moonlight ...
for his play "The Brothers Size". In 2010, Dan LeFranc won for his play "Sixty Miles to Silver Lake".
See also
* List of companies based in New York City
Notes
External links
*
''International New York Times''
The New York Times Company records (1836–2000)
– The New York Public Library
New Yimes Times building
{{DEFAULTSORT:New York Times Company, The
.
Mass media companies based in New York City
Newspaper companies of the United States
Magazine publishing companies of the United States
Publishing companies based in New York City
Publicly traded companies based in New York City
Companies based in Manhattan
Publishing companies established in 1851
1851 establishments in New York (state)
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
1960s initial public offerings