Chattanooga Times The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...

Adolph Ochs Adolph Simon Ochs (March 12, 1858 – April 8, 1935) was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of ''The New York Times'' and ''The Chattanooga Times'', which is now the ''Chattanooga Times Free Press''. Through his only child, Iphigene ...

Times Tower The Times Tower, also known as the New Central Bank Tower, is an office tower in Nairobi, Kenya. At ,Republican Party. ''The New York Times'' reported on the sinking of the ''Titanic'' as other newspapers were cautious about bulletins from the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

. Through managing editor

Carr Van Anda Carr Vattal Van Anda (December 2, 1864 – January 29, 1945) was the managing editor of ''The New York Times'' under Adolph Ochs, from 1904 to 1932. Biography Van Anda was born in Georgetown, Ohio to Frederick Van Anda and Mariah Davis. He ...

, the ''Times'' focused on scientific advancements, reporting on

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

's then-unknown theory of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

and becoming involved in the

discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by excavators led by the Egyptologist Howard Carter, more than 3,300 years after Tutankhamun's death and burial. Whereas the tombs of most pharaohs were plundered by gra ...

. In April 1935, Ochs died, leaving his son-in-law

Arthur Hays Sulzberger Arthur Hays Sulzberger (September 12, 1891December 11, 1968) was publisher of ''The New York Times'' from 1935 to 1961. During that time, daily circulation rose from 465,000 to 713,000 and Sunday circulation from 745,000 to 1.4 million; the staff ...

as publisher. The

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

forced Sulzberger to reduce ''The New York Times''s operations, and developments in the New York newspaper landscape resulted in the formation of larger newspapers, such as the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

'' and the ''

New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...

''. In contrast to Ochs, Sulzberger encouraged

wirephoto Wirephoto, telephotography or radiophoto is the sending of photographs by telegraph, telephone or radio. History Technologically and commercially, the wirephoto was the successor to Ernest A. Hummel's ''Telediagraph'' of 1895, which had tran ...

graphy. ''The New York Times'' extensively covered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

through large headlines, reporting on exclusive stories such as the

Yugoslav coup d'état The Yugoslav coup d'état took place on 27 March 1941 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when the regency led by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was overthrown and King Peter II fully assumed monarchical powers. The coup was planned and conducte ...

. Amid the war, Sulzberger began expanding the ''Times''s operations further, acquiring

WQXR-FM WQXR-FM (105.9 FM) is an American non-commercial classical radio station, licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the North Jersey and New York City area. It is owned by the nonprofit organization New York Public Radio (NYPR), which also op ...

in 1944—the first non-''Times'' investment since the Jones era—and established a fashion show in Times Hall. Despite reductions as a result of conscription, ''The New York Times'' retained the largest journalism staff of any newspaper. The ''Times''s print edition became available internationally during the war through the

Army & Air Force Exchange Service The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES, also referred to as The Exchange and post exchange/PX or base exchange/BX) provides goods and services at U.S. Army, Air Force, and Space Force installations worldwide, operating department stores, ...

; ''The New York Times Overseas Weekly'' later became available in Japan through ''

The Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'' and in Germany through the ''

Frankfurter Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' (, ) was a German-language newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in Frankfurt. In Nazi Germany, it was considered the only mass publication not completely control ...

''. The international edition would develop into a separate newspaper. Journalist William L. Laurence publicized the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

race between the United States and Germany, resulting in the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

seizing copies of the ''Times''. The United States government recruited Laurence to document the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

in April 1945. Laurence became the only witness of the Manhattan Project, a detail realized by employees of ''The New York Times'' following the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civil ...

.

1896–1900: Ochs's purchase and revitalization

In May 1895, ''

Chattanooga Times The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...

'' publisher

Adolph Ochs Adolph Simon Ochs (March 12, 1858 – April 8, 1935) was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of ''The New York Times'' and ''The Chattanooga Times'', which is now the ''Chattanooga Times Free Press''. Through his only child, Iphigene ...

considered purchasing the ''

New York Mercury New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 19 ...

'', a dying Democratic publication that supported the free silver movement, at the behest of his acquaintance Leopold Wallach. Ochs was still recovering from the panic of 1893 and did not want to build up another newspaper business in the South; a deal for the '' Nashville American'' fell through. Wallach was a noted opponent of free silver but befriended some of the "silver senators" who built the ''Mercury'' into a Democratic organ. Likewise, Ochs supported the

gold standard A gold standard is a backed currency, monetary system in which the standard economics, economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the ...

, as did the ''Chattanooga Times''. By the fall of 1875, Ochs was actively interested in purchasing the ''New York Mercury'' but stipulated that he must have control over its editorial content. He thoroughly examined the paper's plant and financials. The deal fell through in March 1896 after the ''Mercury''s owners included a clause allowing them to vacate the plant and after Ochs discovered that the

United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...

was unwilling to transfer publishers. On March 12, 1896—his 38th birthday—Ochs received a telegram from Harry Alloway, a member of ''The New-York Times''s

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

staff. Alloway, who had previously met him at a trip to

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

in 1890, informed Ochs of the ''Times''s situation and proposed that he should purchase the paper. ''

Chicago Times-Herald The ''Chicago Times'' was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the ''Chicago Herald'', to become the ''Chicago Times-Herald''. The ''Times-Herald'' effectively disappeared in 1901 when it merged with the ''Chicago Recor ...

'' publisher H. H. Kohlsaat convinced him that he would have the caliber to run ''The New-York Times'', and, after talking with stockholder Sam Thomas and

Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems; it was subsequently known as IBM. In 1911, the financier and noted trust organizer Charles R. Flint, called the ...

founder

Charles Ranlett Flint Charles Ranlett Flint (January 24, 1850 – February 26, 1934) was the founder of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company which later became IBM. For his financial dealings, he earned the moniker "Father of Trusts". He was an avid sportsman ...

, Alloway gave Ochs the opportunity to purchase the ''Times'' if he ran it for at least a year without incurring debt. After hearing that Alloway persuaded Thomas and Flint, Wallach became as eager as Ochs was. Ochs began meeting with other figures, including Charles Ransom Miller, Flint, and

Spencer Trask Spencer Trask (September 18, 1844 – December 31, 1909) was an American financier, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison's commercial production ...

. Flint and Trask developed a plan to reorganize the company, but it required more money than Ochs could provide. A portion of stockholders believed that ''The New-York Times'' should consolidate with '' The New York Recorder'' to form the Times-Recorder Company. Efforts to consolidate the two companies fell through after Miller and Edward Cary put the ''Times'' into the receivership of Alfred Ely, who doubted Ochs's ability to stave off Hearst, Pulitzer, and

James Gordon Bennett Jr. James Gordon Bennett Jr. (May 10, 1841May 14, 1918) was an American publisher. He was the publisher of the ''New York Herald'', founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett Sr. (1795–1872), who emigrated from Scotland. He was generally known as ...

, but had a change of heart upon meeting with him. Rumors in

Printing House Square Printing House Square was a London court in the City of London, so called from the former office of the King's Printer which occupied the site. For many years, the office of ''The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily ...

began circulating, with the most prominent stating that Wall Street would control ''The New-York Times'' with Ochs at the helm. The rumor cited

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...

and

August Belmont August Belmont Sr. (born Aron Belmont; December 8, 1813November 24, 1890) was a German-American financier, diplomat, and politician. He served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1860 to 1872. He was also a thoroughbred racehors ...

's ownership of () in debenture. In mid-June 1896, stockholders accepted Ochs's plan to form a new company with a capital of 10,000 shares worth (). As a persuasive, Ochs offered fifteen shares for () bond. He purchased 1,125 shares of stock through bonds worth a total of () and placed the remaining stock, 3,876 shares, in escrow, giving him 5,001 shares of the 10,000 shares. The plan was declared operative on July 2. Court proceedings dragged throughout the summer; Ochs accused Elys of intentionally delaying the court procedure and told his wife, Effie, "He will certainly not be on my board of directors. He has cooked his goose with me. He has given me entirely too much anxiety to enlist my future friendship." On August 13, 1896, Ochs officially purchased ''The New-York Times'', and he was formally installed at 3:30 p.m. on August 18, the same day he moved into his office at 71 Park Row. The following day, the ''Times'' carried his declaration of principle, drafted with Effie. In the following months, he would come to know his staff. He displayed a particular admiration for Henry Loewenthal, a business-minded editor who eventually became managing editor until 1904. With Loewenthal, Ochs introduced a section entitled, "Arrival of Buyers" on September 20, 1896, that solidified ''The New-York Times'' as a merchant's newspaper. Loewenthal himself received a Monday financial review on November 8, 1897, eventually becoming a separate ''Times'' publication titled ''The Annalist''. Ochs's focus on business news was met with ridicule from general news reporters, but ultimately brought new readers and advertising. In comparison to other publishers, he expanded the

letter to the editor A letter to the editor (LTE) is a Letter (message), letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through ...

section and allowed critics of the ''Times'' to write to editors. Ochs respected Frederick Craig Mortimer, a columnist, and allowed him to start a section titled "Topics of The Times". Mortimer retired in 1926 and was replaced by

Simeon Strunsky Simeon Strunsky (July 23, 1879 – February 5, 1948) was a Russian-born Jewish American essayist and editorialist. He is best remembered as a prominent editorialist for the ''New York Times'' for more than two decades. Biography Early year ...

. By 1869, readers sought to buy newspapers that were exclusively newspapers.

Charles Anderson Dana Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper '' New-York Tribune ...

's ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' favored features over full coverage of the news. Newspapers that billed themselves as exclusively news—the ''New York Mercury'', ''The New York Recorder'', and the '' New-York Commercial Advertiser''—were dying. The ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

'' purchased the ''Recorder'' that year and inherited the paper's use of

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

s. In one Sunday issue, the ''Tribune'' gave away a lithograph of a basket of strawberries and a bottle of champagne. The move was so controversial that the ''Tribune'' ended the lithographs. Pulitzer's ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'' berated the ''Times'' for "

osing Osing may refer to: * Osing people * Osing language The Osing language (Osing: ''Basa Using''; ), locally known as ''the language of Banyuwangi'', is the Modern Javanese dialect of the Osing people of East Java, Indonesia. The Osing diale ...

[]". Ochs continued to run the ''Times'' as usual as Dana mounted attacks against the paper and yellow journalism. He implemented a series of trivial changes, including removing Miller's fiction, altering the

kerning In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between Character (symbol), characters in a Typeface#Proportion, proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual le ...

and thinning the columns, bought better

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has ...

and ink, removed advertisements that generated the paper no revenue, and implemented

dateline A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization is ...

s. He purchased nascent automatic space-equalizers to speed up production. The Sunday supplement, first issued on September 6, 1898, focused on current events, in comparison to the reused material other newspapers used at the time. In December, ''The New-York Times'' became ''The New York Times''. In October, the staff of ''The New-York Times'' tentatively chose the slogan, "All the News That's Fit to Print", but created a contest to decide a better name, judged by ''

The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associati ...

'' editor

Richard Watson Gilder Richard Watson Gilder (February 8, 1844 – November 19, 1909) was an American poet and editor. Life and career Gilder was born on February 8, 1844 at Bordentown, New Jersey. He was the son of Jane (Nutt) Gilder and the Rev. William Henry Gi ...

. Entries were limited: the motto or phrase could not exceed more than ten words—a clause many contestants ignored—and the ''Times'' ignored entries from women. The author of the winning submission would receive (). A variety of slogans were entered in thousands of postcards, including rhymes—"We use all news fit to peruse"—and at least one

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

—"The Information Mankind Earnestly Seeks"—with many containing a "pure" or "clean" undertone. The winner was D.M. Redfield of

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

, who penned, "All The World's News, but Not a School for Scandal". Although Ochs enjoyed the slogan, he ultimately stuck with his original slogan, first printed on October 25, 1896. It became a part of the front page on February 10, 1897. The contest earned the paper further recognition nationally; the slogan has since become a

leitmotif A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial angliciz ...

of American journalism. The slogan was also materialized in electric lights on the north side of the Cumberland Hotel on 22nd Street and was chanted by a group of ''Times'' staff marching in the Sound Money Parade. The

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

in 1898 brought about a new set of challenges for Ochs. Hearst and Pulitzer were able to send dispatch boats and correspondents at a rate met only by Bennett. ''The New York Times'' prominently displayed the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

's coverage to compensate and entered into a combination with the ''

New York Evening Mail The ''New York Evening Mail'' (1867–1924) was an American daily newspaper published in New York City. For a time the paper was the only evening newspaper to have a franchise in the Associated Press. History Names The paper was founded as the ' ...

'' and the ''Commercial Advertiser''; neither effort succeeded. In a final move, he lowered the price back to one cent () in October. The announcement was met by condemnation. '' The Journalist'' argued that readers would pay for any price and that the ''Times'' would not attract new readers. '' The Buffalo Express'' invoked Raymond and Jones's legacy in their critique. Yellow publications spread the rumor that ''The New York Times'' was being financed by

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

leader

Richard Croker Richard Welstead Croker (November 24, 1843 – April 29, 1922), known as "Boss Croker", was an Irish American political boss who was a leader of New York City's Tammany Hall. His control over the city was cemented with the 1897 election of R ...

and that lowering the price would benefit the Democratic Party. Firmly, Ochs pushed forward. Within a month, production increased from five to eight times more in some districts. Within a year, circulation went from 25,726 to 76,220.

1900–1908: Ochs era, international recognition, and Times Tower

In January 1900, Adolph Ochs sent for his brother and ''Chattanooga Times'' general manager, George, to print a special edition of ''The New York Times'' at that year's Paris Exposition. At a cost of (), George established six

Linotype machine The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing which is manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for one-time use. Li ...

s, an octuple Goss press, and a

stereotyping In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

plant. The plant was ready by March; it was visited by

Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leo ...

, who personally shook hands with Ochs. The special edition ran from June to October of that year. In ''Inter Ocean Publishing Co. v. Associated Press'' (1900), the

Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the judiciary of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the ...

ruled that the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

was a public utility, allowing ''The New York Times'' to receive full membership from its Class B status. In addition, Ochs became a chartered member and served on its board for twenty years. The reorganization committee was dissolved on July 1. In October, an alliance with ''

The Times of London ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' was discussed.

Charles Frederic Moberly Bell Charles Frederic Moberly Bell (2 April 1847, Alexandria5 April 1911, London) was a British journalist and newspaper editor. He was the managing director of ''The Times'' during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where his innovations include ...

, manager of ''The Times of London'', proposed lending stories to the ''Times'' for a minimum of () and forming the ''International Times''. The resulting paper could have had an impact on Bennett's ''

Paris Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the ''New York Herald Tribune''. Hist ...

'', but plans failed to materialize. At least one factor was that Ochs may have been labelled an

Anglophile An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. In some cases, Anglophilia refers to an individual's appreciation of English history and traditional English cultural ico ...

. ''The New York Times'' later purchased exclusive rights to ''The Times of London''s coverage and shared expenses during special events, such as the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

. By 1901, ''The New York Times'' was an independent Democratic newspaper, though it supported Republican

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

in the 1900 presidential election for his support of sound money, which Democratic candidate

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party' ...

did not affirm. The ''Times'' continued to expand into the 20th century, particularly after the death of Queen Victoria and

McKinley's assassination William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, six months into his second term. He was shaking hands with t ...

. Ochs planned a new building at 233 Broadway—the site of the present day

Woolworth Building The Woolworth Building is a residential building and early skyscraper at 233 Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the Tribeca neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it was the tallest building in the world f ...

—in fall 1900 that would "wake up the natives". On July 1, 1902, the paper closed a deal to construct a new building at

42nd Street 42nd Street most commonly refers to: *42nd Street (Manhattan), a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan It may also refer to: *42nd Street (film), ''42nd Street'' (film), a 1933 American Warner Bros. musical film with lyri ...

as the 233 Broadway plan fell through, much to Ochs's benefit; the construction of the first line of the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...

contributed to northward growth, while Park Row was stagnant. The site at 42nd Street was a triangular plot between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, where the

Pabst Hotel The Pabst Hotel occupied the north side of 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City, between 7th Avenue and Broadway, in Longacre Square, from 1899 to 1902. It was demolished to make room for the new headquarters of ''The New York Times'', for wh ...

stood. In a front-page article, ''The New York Times'' claimed that the new building's proximity to a New York City Subway station would expand the paper's circulation. Architect

Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz (July 27, 1853 – October 5, 1921) was an American architect best known for designing One Times Square in New York City. Educated in Germany, he was also founder of the architecture firm of Eidlitz and McKenzie, p ...

was hired to draft up plans for the building and site clearing began in December. Ochs's daughter, Iphigene Bertha Ochs, laid the cornerstone on January 18, 1904, murmuring, "I declare this stone to be laid plumb, level and square." The building—still under construction—was used to announce that

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

won the 1904 presidential election by searchlight; the ''Times'' supported Democrat

Alton B. Parker Alton Brooks Parker (May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American judge. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1904 United States presidential election, losing in a landslide to incumbent Republican Theodore Roosevelt. A native of upstate New ...

that year. Following multiple delays and pluvial weather, the

Times Tower The Times Tower, also known as the New Central Bank Tower, is an office tower in Nairobi, Kenya. At ,New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

to fireworks at a cost of (). The following morning, men from the

Mergenthaler Linotype Company The Mergenthaler Linotype Company was a company founded in the United States in 1886 to market the Linotype machine (), a system to cast metal type in lines (linecaster) invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. It became the world's leading manufacturer ...

and R. Hoe & Company brought the machinery from

41 Park Row 41 may refer to: * 41 (number) * one of the years 41 BC, AD 41, 1941, 2041 Art and entertainment * ''41'' (film), a 2007 documentary about Nicholas O'Neill, the youngest victim of the Station nightclub fire * ''41'', an Australian award-winni ...

to the Times Tower by horseback. New Hoe presses and Linotype machines were purchased. Much of the building was paid for with sums from

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States Equitable Holdings, Inc. (formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States and AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, and also known as The Equitable) is an American financial services and insurance company that was founded in ...

, owned by

James Hazen Hyde James Hazen Hyde (June 6, 1876 — July 26, 1959) was the son of Henry Baldwin Hyde, the founder of The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. James Hazen Hyde was twenty-three in 1899 when he inherited the majority shares in the b ...

. Despite being financially invested by Equitable Life, ''The New York Times'' routinely covered the

Armstrong Investigation The Armstrong Committee, formally the Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York to Investigate and Examine into the Business and Affairs of Life Insurance Companies Doing Business in the State of New York was a committee e ...

, a

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the Bicameralism, two houses that act as the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York: the New York State Senate and the New York State Assem ...

investigation into various life insurance companies initiated by alleged corporate malfeasance when Hyde hosted a

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

-themed

costume ball A costume party (American English) or fancy dress party (other varieties of English) is a type of party, common in contemporary Anglo culture, in which many of the guests are dressed in costume, usually depicting a fictional or stock characte ...

and was accused of spending () through the company. Worried that Hearst may discover he was an Equitable debtor, Ochs told Marcellus Hartley Dodge Sr.—the grandson of arms dealer

Marcellus Hartley Marcellus Hartley (1827 – January 8, 1902) was an American arms dealer and merchant. He was appointed as an agent by the Union Army to purchase guns from Europe during the American Civil War. He later manufactured cartridges for breech-loading ...

who knew Ochs, that he wanted to take up the loan from Equitable and an additional (), offering his majority share in the ''Times'' as collateral. Dodge secretly put the stock certificates in a safety deposit box until 1916, when ''The New York Times'' paid the loan. In February 1904, Ochs hired

Carr Van Anda Carr Vattal Van Anda (December 2, 1864 – January 29, 1945) was the managing editor of ''The New York Times'' under Adolph Ochs, from 1904 to 1932. Biography Van Anda was born in Georgetown, Ohio to Frederick Van Anda and Mariah Davis. He ...

, a reporter for ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'', as managing editor. Tifft, S. E., Jones, A. S. 1999. ''The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times''. Little, Brown, p. 64-5. Van Anda extensively covered the Russo-Japanese War through ''The Times of London''. The war dispatch detailing the

Battle of Port Arthur The of 8–9 February 1904 marked the commencement of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Imperial Japanese Navy, Japanese destroyers on the neutral country, neutral Imperial Russian Navy, Russian fl ...

for ''The New York Times'' was the first

wireless Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided transm ...

report of a naval engagement. The telegraph was conducted by the

Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 which was a pioneer of wireless long distance communication and mass media broadcasting, eventually becoming on ...

, who would continue to work with ''The New York Times'' thereafter, including transmitting the first account of an ocean disaster when the crew of the ''

SS Cymric SS ''Cymric'' was a steamship of the White Star Line built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast and launched on 12 October 1897. History Design ''Cymric'' had originally been intended to be an enlarged version of ''SS Georgic'', being a combinatio ...

'' saved several dozen men aboard the ''St. Cuthbert'', a freighter set ablaze in 1908 off

Cape Sable Island Cape Sable Island, locally referred to as Cape Island, is a small Canada, Canadian island at the southernmost point of the Nova Scotia peninsula. It is sometimes confused with Sable Island. Historically, the Argyle, Nova Scotia region was known ...

. Under Van Anda, the ''Times'' entered an agreement to syndicate stories with the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'', including the account of the ''St. Cuthbert'' explosion. ''The New York Times'' was the first publication to report on explorer

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being ...

's expedition to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. Peary first contacted the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...

'' and requested two men who had gone over to the ''Times''. The ''Herald''s editor expressed little interest in covering Peary's expedition; the ''Times'', by contrast, paid Peary () for exclusive rights to his story. A year later, surgeon

Frederick Cook Frederick Albert Cook (June 10, 1865 – August 5, 1940) was an American explorer, physician and ethnographer, who is most known for allegedly being the first to reach the North Pole on April 21, 1908. A competing claim was made a year l ...

claimed to have reached the North Pole before Peary and sold his story to the ''New York Herald''. English journalist

Philip Gibbs Sir Philip Armand Thomas Hamilton Gibbs KBE, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (1 May 1877 – 10 March 1962) was an English journalist and author who served as one of five official British war correspondents during the First World War. Earl ...

publicly downplayed Cook's claims in an interview with him in which Cook admitted that the only people who witnessed his feat were

Eskimo ''Eskimo'' () is a controversial Endonym and exonym, exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Canadian Inuit, and the Greenlandic Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Sibe ...

s. Several days later, Peary telegraphed that he had made it to the North Pole.

1908–1918: Political realignment, the ''Titanic'', and World War I

In June 1908, Van Anda recruited Oscar King Davis to obtain

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

's platform amid breaks in the Republican Party's policy. Through senator

William Borah William Edgar Borah (June 29, 1865 – January 19, 1940) was an outspoken Republican United States Senator, one of the best-known figures in Idaho's history. A progressive who served from 1907 until his death in 1940, Borah voted for A ...

, Davis obtained the platform and published it, much to the chagrin of the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. ''The New York Times'' continued to oppose William Jennings Bryan's candidacy, supporting Taft in the 1908 presidential election. In the 1912 election, the ''Times'' supported

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

in an editorial. Wilson attributed his victory to the editorial; at the time, his gubernatorial record was marked by radicalism, much of which was subsided. ''The New York Times'' affirmed its support for Wilson amid fears that moderate factions of the Democratic Party would not support him. The ''Times'' did not entirely support Wilson's policies but disavowed the conservatism of

Champ Clark James Beauchamp Clark (March 7, 1850March 2, 1921) was an American politician and attorney who served as the 36th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1911 to 1919. He was the only Democrat to serve as speaker during the P ...

. The paper continued to support Wilson through his presidency, including the passage of the Underwood-Simmons tariff. That year, Ochs began the tradition of lowering a lit ball on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

from the Times Tower. The

Times Square Ball The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where t ...

is dropped every year. Titanic-NYT

In the following years, ''The New York Times'' actively attempted to get exclusive coverage. In May 1910,

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...

attempted to claim the () prize set by the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'' by flying from Albany to New York City in a single day. Van Anda had boarded a

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

train to follow his plane with Curtiss's wife, Lena, a maneuver deemed "too dangerous" for a lagged ''World'' reporter. In the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

released a bulletin stating that the ''

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that Sinking of the Titanic, sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking Iceberg that struck the Titanic, an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York Ci ...

'' had reportedly signaled that it had hit an iceberg to a Marconi station. Thirty minutes later, the ''Titanic'' flashed an

SOS SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, originally established for maritime use. In formal notation SOS is written with an overscore line (), to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" a ...

signal and sunk.

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct Packet trade, packet company, it gradually grew to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo service ...

executives reassured journalists that the ''Titanic'' was unsinkable. Against editors in New York and London, Van Anda sent his secretary and head of the archival library Tommy Bracken to unearth as much as possible about the ''Titanic''. The issue of ''The New York Times'' that morning included a four-line header. The issue also included a two-column advertisement for a ''Titanic'' voyage later that week. By April 19, the ''Times'' had estimated 1,595 had died, though a Senate inquiry determined that 1,517 had died. The edition of ''The New York Times'' that day became a collector's item, and has been regarded as a great disaster report amid caution from other newspapers. By 1911, ''The New York Times'' required more physical space; its staffing had increased and the growth of the metropolitan area necessitated more mechanical equipment, particularly for ''The Sunday Times''. The mechanical basement was excavated a further , though the ''Times'' continued to face pressures to circulate more copies. In March 1911, the paper purchased the

fee simple In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., pe ...

from 221 to

229 West 43rd Street 229 West 43rd Street (formerly The New York Times Building, The New York Times Annex, and the Times Square Building) is an 18-story office building in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913 ...

, from theatre owner

Lee Shubert Lee Shubert (born Levi Schubart; March 25, 1871 – December 25, 1953) was a Lithuanian-born American theatre owner/operator and producer. He was the eldest of three brothers of the notable Shubert family. Biography Born to a Jewish family, th ...

. Connected to the Times Tower through

pneumatic tube Pneumatic tubes (or capsule pipelines, also known as pneumatic tube transport or PTT) are systems that propel cylindrical containers through networks of Tubing (material), tubes by Gas compressor, compressed air or by partial vacuum. They are use ...

s, the buildings would serve as an annex for the mechanical and editorial departments. Mortimer J. Fox was contracted to erect a building at 229 West 43rd Street. Work began in March 1912 and completed in August 1913; during construction, the ''Times'' printed issues from the building. By the time of its completion, six hundred employees occupied 229 West 43rd Street, making ''The New York Times'' one of the largest employers in the area. The ''Times'' made the building its headquarters on February 2, 1913, but continued to use the Times Tower for publication and subscription offices until 1961. In April 1913, ''The New York Times'' added an eighth column.

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

presented journalistic difficulties that had not been experienced in ''The New York Times''s coverage of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. Adolph Ochs worked out a news exchange with '' The London Chronicle'' to enhance the ''Times''s coverage of the war. Several correspondents were present in the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

as ''Times'' reporters; Frederic W. Wile was the first until his arrest, followed by Cyril Brown until the United States entered the war.

Garet Garrett Garet Garrett (February 19, 1878 – November 6, 1954), born Edward Peter Garrett, was an American journalist and author, known for his opposition to the New Deal and U.S. involvement in World War II. Overview Garrett was born February 1 ...

arrived in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1915. ''The New York Times'' published the so-called British White Paper, hundreds of correspondence letters between the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

and the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...

leading up to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's

declaration of war A declaration of war is a formal act by which one state announces existing or impending war activity against another. The declaration is a performative speech act (or the public signing of a document) by an authorized party of a national gov ...

against Germany. A day later, the ''Times'' provided Kaiser

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as th ...

's perspective through Wile. ''The New York Times''s two-sided approach continued into its coverage of the war itself, including the occupation of

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, the

Battle of Liège The Battle of Liège (5–16 August 1914) was the opening engagement of the German invasion of Belgium and the first battle of the First World War. The city of Liège was protected by a ring of modern fortresses, one of several fortified cities ...

, and the siege of Namur. The Sunday issue contained war photographs in the

rotogravure Rotogravure (or gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, which involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset printing and flexography, it u ...

section with exceeding quality. Although ''The New York Times'' editorially believed that Austria and Germany were at fault for the war, the paper published documents from the war in full, without commentary. Supporters of German accused Ochs of giving in to ''

The Times of London ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

'' owner

Lord Northcliffe Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (15 July 1865 – 14 August 1922), was a British newspaper and publishing magnate. As owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and the ''Daily Mirror'', he was an early developer of popular journal ...

's bias, while readers who sided with the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

were not pleased with German arguments being presented alongside Allied arguments. Accusations that the ''Times'' gives in to British interests reoccurred in a Senatorial Committee in 1915;

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

senator Thomas J. Walsh insinuated editor-in-chief

Charles Ransom Miller Charles Ransom Miller (January 17, 1849 – July 18, 1922) was an editor-in-chief of ''The New York Times''. He was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, to Elijah and Chastina Hoyt Miller. Miller attended Dartmouth College and graduated in 1872. After ...

and Van Anda acted on behalf of the British in opposing Wilson's ship-purchase bill, questing deletions from a London dispatch stating that British steamship lines were outrageously charging American refugees that were not present in the ''New York World'' or the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' (from 1914: ''New York Tribune'') was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s ...

''. In particular, Walsh stated that he "was informed" through a letter he received claiming from a member of the

gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...

the Junior Constitutional Club that a "well-known Englishman" was supporting Ochs with money to gain control of the paper. The letter appeared to be signed by an Arthur M. Abbey; the writer was never identified and never came forward. The United States's entrance into World War I affected the paper's operations. Logistically, the war increased cable costs from () to (). War fever spread through ''The New York Times'' and several employees served in the war.

Julius Ochs Adler Julius Ochs Adler (December 3, 1892 – October 3, 1955) was an American publisher, journalist, and highly decorated United States Army officer with the rank of major general. He distinguished himself during World War I as Major and battalion co ...

, Ochs's nephew, went to serve overseas in the

77th Infantry Division 77th Division or 75th Infantry Division may refer to: *77th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht), Germany * 77th Infantry Division of Khurasan, Iran * 77th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) * 77th Division (People's Republic of China) *77th Division (Sp ...

. Five employees died, including

Joyce Kilmer Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American people, American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees (poem), Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection ''Trees and Other Poems'' in ...

of the Sunday department, who became a sergeant in the 69th Infantry Regiment. Invigorated by a peace bid by Austria, Miller—whose previous work earned him much praise, wrote a controversial editorial advocating for Austria's position. The ''Times'' was accused of "running up the white flag" as scorn and denounicatory letters rolled in upon the paper. The

Union League Club The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hi ...

, composed of the most influential men in New York, scheduled a meeting to consider publicly denouncing ''The New York Times''. Much to Ochs's surprise, several members refused to attend the meeting. New York Central Railroad president

Chauncey Depew Chauncey Mitchell Depew (April 23, 1834April 5, 1928) was an American attorney, businessman, and Republican politician. He is best remembered for his two terms as United States Senator from New York and for his work for Cornelius Vanderbilt, a ...

defended the paper in a letter to club secretary Henry C. Quimby, as did jurist

Elihu Root Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican Party (United States), Republican politician, and statesman who served as the 41st United States Secretary of War under presidents William McKinley and Theodor ...

and entrepreneur Frank Woolworth.

1918–1928: Continued scientific coverage

In the days following the end of World War I, ''The New York Times'' continued its coverage of the war. Van Anda sent correspondent Edwin Leland James to the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

and

Walter Duranty Walter Duranty (25 May 1884 – 3 October 1957) was an Anglo-American journalist who served as Moscow bureau chief of ''The New York Times'' for fourteen years (1922–1936) following the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1917–1 ...

to occupied Germany. James, Duranty, Charles H. Grasty, Charles Selden, and Ernst Marshall worked under Richard V. Oulahan on covering peace negotiations. James offered to provide the ''Times'' with a preliminary copy of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, but the paper had already obtained the treaty through a ''Chicago Tribune'' reporter who gave the treaty to Borah. Van Anda opened a total of twenty-four telephone lines. The June 10, 1918 issue of ''The New York Times'' carried the treaty in full. The ''Times'' was able to obtain and publish several exclusive stories during the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

despite the disapproval of some readers. Editorially, the ''Times'' supported the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

wholeheartedly even as the United States refused to join. As the conference continued to play out, ''The New York Times'' returned to its coverage of technological advancements, such as the first

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, bal ...

completed by a

Curtiss NC-4 The NC-4 is a Curtiss NC flying boat that was the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, albeit not non-stop. The NC designation was derived from the collaborative efforts of the Navy (N) and Curtiss (C). The NC series flying boats w ...

. From 1896 to 1921, daily circulation increased from 9,000 to 323,000 and annual advertising lineage from 2,227,000 to 23,447,000 lines. In August 1920,

Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of the Cold War, coining t ...

and Charles Merz published ''

A Test of the News ''A Test of the News'' is a study of the objectivity and neutrality of press coverage, written by Walter Lippmann and Charles Merz, later editor of ''The New York Times''. It was prepared with the assistance of Faye Albertson Lippmann, Lippmann's f ...

'', concluding that—in reporting on the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

—the ''Times'' fabricated events and erroneously printed that the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

were precarious ninety-one times. ''The New York Times'' focused on scientific news more than any other paper, an importance shared by E. W. Scripps of

Scripps-Howard The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by E. W. Scripps, Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a ...

. Much of the ''Times''s scientific coverage was done by John Swinton, an editorial writer. In 1860, Swinton wrote three and a half columns regarding the reprint of ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

'' (1859) by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

. An academic who studied

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

at

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

, Van Anda was eager to report on

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

in 1919. Einstein, a relatively unknown European theoretical physicist, formulated the

equivalence principle The equivalence principle is the hypothesis that the observed equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass is a consequence of nature. The weak form, known for centuries, relates to masses of any composition in free fall taking the same t ...

and used the principle to test the gravitational pull of the Sun as an object passed close to its

photosphere The photosphere is a star's outer shell from which light is radiated. It extends into a star's surface until the plasma becomes opaque, equivalent to an optical depth of approximately , or equivalently, a depth from which 50% of light will esc ...

. The

solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Thursday, May 29, 1919, with a magnitude of 1.0719. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of ...

provided the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

with a tangible way to test Einstein's theory, attracting the attention of Van Anda. The Einstein contention of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

juxtaposed the Newtonian theory of gravitation and the ''Times''s coverage of the findings of the eclipse provided Americans with an introduction to Einstein, though other newspapers remained uneasy of his theories. The ''Times'' was involved in the

discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by excavators led by the Egyptologist Howard Carter, more than 3,300 years after Tutankhamun's death and burial. Whereas the tombs of most pharaohs were plundered by gra ...

through Van Anda's knowledge of

Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...

. Van Anda sent

Russell Owen Russell D. Owen (January 8, 1889 – April 3, 1952) was an American journalist employed by ''The New York Times''. He covered Arctic and Antarctic exploration both as a reporter and in books. Owen Peak, originally named "Mount Russell Owen," was ...

to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

for a photograph of a stele and discovered that eventual pharaoh

Horemheb Horemheb, also spelled Horemhab, Haremheb or Haremhab (, meaning "Horus is in Jubilation"), was the last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550–1292 BC). He ruled for at least 14 years between 1319 ...

had attempted to erase

Tutankhamun Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen, (; ), was an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of an ...

's signature in place of his own. The Horemheb forgery was a theory proposed by French Egyptologist Le Grain but never developed. Egyptologist

Philip K. Hitti Philip Khuri Hitti (; 22 June 1886 – 24 December 1978) was a Lebanese-American professor and scholar at Princeton and Harvard University, and authority on Arab and Middle Eastern history, Islam, and Semitic languages. He almost single-handedly ...

called the discovery a "most remarkable example of scholarly intuition and acumen". Several weeks later, Alva Johnston was sent to cover the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

's support of

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

, much to the ire of

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, running three times as the party' ...

,

John Roach Straton John Roach Straton (surname rhymes with "Dayton"; April 6, 1875 – October 29, 1929) was an American Fundamentalist Baptist pastor. Straton was the son of the Reverend Henry Dundas Douglas Straton and the former Julia Rebecca Carter of Virginia ...

, and other

fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishin ...

s. The next day, the ''Times'' carried the first newspaper story about

isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...

s and

alpha particle Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay but may also be produce ...

s. Johnston's coverage earned him a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

in 1922. ''The New York Times'' also carried crime stories, including extensive coverage of the shooting of architect

Stanford White Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and a partner in the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, one of the most significant Beaux-Arts firms at the turn of the 20th century. White designed many houses ...

in 1906. Broad coverage occurred when the paper felt that injustice had occurred, such as the

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

of

Leo Frank Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884August 17, 1915) was an American lynching victim convicted in 1913 of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, an employee in a factory in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was the superintendent. Frank's trial, convicti ...

. On July 18, 1922, Charles Miller died. His obituary covered the following day's editorial page, and Ochs, the ''Times'' editorial board, and Miller's associates followed his body to the Woodland Cemetery. Miller left his holdings in ''The New York Times'' to his two children; he was replaced by Rollo Ogden, a former ''

New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost.com; PageSix.com, a gossip site; and Decider.com, an entertainm ...

'' journalist. The ''Times'' experienced another loss with Van Anda's retirement in 1925. Prior to retiring, Van Anda had two major stories. In late July 1923, president

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was one of the most ...

fell ill. Van Anda sent Jim Hagerty to the president. Hagerty was staying at the Okema in

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

when he received news that Harding had died. By luck, Edward Klauber called the Okema attempting to reach Hagery but had reached a line in

Rutland Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

with

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...

's stenographer, Edwin Geisser. Geisser gave Klauber as much detail as he requested, and the ''Times'' had exceptional coverage of Coolidge's inauguration. The day Van Anda retired, ''The New York Times'' had thorough coverage of the

solar eclipse of January 24, 1925 A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Saturday, January 24, 1925, with a magnitude of 1.0304. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image o ...

. Frederick T. Birchall was appointed managing editor in 1925, bringing a bout of liberalism with sports bylines. Throughout 1924, ''The New York Times'' continued to experience much of the success that it had earlier in the century. The paper's gross income exceeded () that year while its Wide World photo service had one hundred employees by 1925. The ''Times''s global coverage was supported by a

superheterodyne receiver A superheterodyne receiver, often shortened to superhet, is a type of radio receiver that uses frequency mixing to convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency (IF) which can be more conveniently processed than the original car ...

on top of 229 West 43rd Street to receive dispatches from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

later expanding to Japan, China, and the

Dutch West Indies The Dutch Caribbean (historically known as the Dutch West Indies) are the New World territories, colonies, and countries (former and current) of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea, mainly the norther ...

.

William Beebe Charles William Beebe ( ; July 29, 1877 – June 4, 1962) was an American natural history, naturalist, ornithologist, marine biologist, entomologist, explorer, and author. He is remembered for the numerous expeditions he conducted for the New Y ...

gave readers stories from the tropical sea while

Auguste Piccard Auguste Antoine Piccard (28 January 1884 – 24 March 1962) was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer known for his record-breaking hydrogen balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere and became the first person to ...

reported from the stratosphere. By the end of the year, circulation was up to 351,000 and advertising lineage increased to 26,000,000. Despite Van Anda's departure, the ''Times'' continued to support scientific discoveries. In 1927, Ochs hired Waldemar Kaempffert, a science writer whom journalist

Meyer Berger Meyer "Mike" Berger (September 1, 1898 – February 8, 1959) was an American journalist, considered one of the finest newspaper reporters. He was also known for "About New York", a long-running column in ''The New York Times'', and for his cente ...

considered to be the first member of an editorial board exclusively devoted to science. Ochs would hire William L. Laurence three years later. Laurence and Kaempffery were frequently the first to report on new developments in science, such as

sulfa drug Sulfonamide is a functional group (a part of a molecule) that is the basis of several groups of drugs, which are called sulphonamides, sulfa drugs or sulpha drugs. The original antibacterial sulfonamides are synthetic antimicrobial agents th ...

s,

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of beta-lactam antibiotic, β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from ''Penicillium'' Mold (fungus), moulds, principally ''Penicillium chrysogenum, P. chrysogenum'' and ''Penicillium rubens, P. ru ...

,

adrenocorticotropic hormone Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH; also adrenocorticotropin, corticotropin) is a polypeptide tropic hormone produced by and secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. It is also used as a medication and diagnostic agent. ACTH is an important ...

s, and

cortisone Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzyme corticosteroid 11-beta-dehydrogenase ...

.

1928–1939: Ochs's death, first Sulzberger era, and interwar period

By 1928, ''The New York Times'' had a gross income of (). In August 1930, Herbert Pulitzer, grandson of

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born , ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and a newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in the U.S. Democ ...

, met with Ochs at the

Ritz-Carlton Hotel The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is an American multinational corporation, multinational company that operates the Hotel#Luxury, luxury hotel chain known as The Ritz-Carlton. The company has 108 conference and resort hotels, luxury hotels an ...

to discuss selling the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'', much to Ochs's surprise. Pulitzer suggested disposing of the ''Morning World'' and the Sunday issue to focus on the ''Evening World''. Discussing the proposition with

Arthur Hays Sulzberger Arthur Hays Sulzberger (September 12, 1891December 11, 1968) was publisher of ''The New York Times'' from 1935 to 1961. During that time, daily circulation rose from 465,000 to 713,000 and Sunday circulation from 745,000 to 1.4 million; the staff ...

and Julius Ochs Adler, Ochs returned to the Ritz-Carlton. He contended that Pulitzer should instead put out a newspaper similar to the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''—a "condensed but not sensational" newspaper—and did not believe it was appropriate for the "ultraconservative" ''Times'' to acquire the paper, believing

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

's ''

New York American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 ...

'' to be a more suitable consolidator. General manager Florence D. White stated that if Ochs rejected the offer, the paper would be sold to

Ogden Mills Reid Ogden Mills Reid (May 16, 1882 – January 3, 1947) was an American newspaper publisher who was president of the ''New York Herald Tribune''. Early life Reid was born on May 16, 1882, in Manhattan. He was the son of Elisabeth (née Mills) Reid ( ...

's nascent ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...

'', formed in 1924 by the merger of the ''New York Herald'' and ''Tribune'', which would present Ochs with a serious threat. In February 1931, the ''Morning World'' and the ''Sunday World'' ceased to exist and the ''Evening World'' was consolidated into the ''Scripps-Howard Telegram'', becoming the ''

New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...

''. In April 1932, James became managing editor when Birchall went to Berlin. His final stories covered his experience in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's totalitarian and autocratic rule. Ochs's authority decreased into the 1920s as his health began to deteriorate. On April 8, 1935, at approximately 1:45 p.m., Ochs suffered a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

following a long illness. An ambulance took him to Newell Sanitarium. Surrounded by his brother, his sister and her husband, his nephew, and his granddaughter, Ochs died at 3:55 p.m. As his body was laid to rest at the Temple Israel Cemetery in

Hastings-on-Hudson Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the town of Greenburgh in the state of New York, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located approximately north of midtown Manhattan, and i ...

, New York City's flags were half-staffed. On May 7, the board elected Sulzberger as president and director. Adler became general manager. The following day, the ''Times'' editorial page carried Sulzberger's creed to continue Ochs's work. Under his will, Ochs's heirs inherited the ''

Chattanooga Times The ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is distributed in the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It is one of Tennessee's majo ...

''. Sulzberger urged picture editor Charles M. Graves to hold off on any radical changes to the paper's layout for at least a year and attempted to reduce operating costs, including considering selling ''The Annalist'', ''Current History'', and ''Mid-Week Pictorial''. Drawing contrast with his predecessor, Sulzberger supported

wirephoto Wirephoto, telephotography or radiophoto is the sending of photographs by telegraph, telephone or radio. History Technologically and commercially, the wirephoto was the successor to Ernest A. Hummel's ''Telediagraph'' of 1895, which had tran ...

—a technology disdained by Ochs in the last years of his life after it was discovered the Associated Press did not consult him on using it. Sulzberger's interest in wirephotography gave rise to an increase in photography in the ''Times'' in general; the ''Times'' was able to wire a photograph of the wreckage of the USS ''Macon'' (ZRS-5) from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, startling users of the Associated Press's wirephoto service. Sulzberger inherited a ''Times'' still reeling from the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

; circulation numbers in 1935 were two-thirds of what they were in 1929. Over the next several years, he would cull many of the paper's publications, including ''Current History'' and ''Mid-Week Pictorial'' in 1936, though both publications faced an impending demise; the ''Sunday Times'' depreciated much of the value of ''Current History'' under

Lester Markel Lester Markel (January 9, 1894 – October 23, 1977) was an American journalist, editor, lecturer, and a significant advocate for the freedom of the press. He received a Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Early life Lester Markel's parents were Jacob Leo ...

, while ''Mid-Week Pictorial'' subdued as a result of the transition to wirephoto. The

rotogravure Rotogravure (or gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, which involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset printing and flexography, it u ...

section in the Sunday issue was also incorporated into ''

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

'' in 1942, an idea conceived by Markel decades prior but prevented by a newsprint shortage and Ochs's illness. ''The Annalist'' was sold to McGraw-Hill Publishing in October 1940 and World Wide Photos was sold to the Associated Press in 1941. Continuing to adhere to Ochsian principle, ''The News of the Week in Review'' was started in the Sunday issue. The weekly review was another Markel idea, but it faced opposition from Ochs, who assumed that readers read every issue for that week in full. The ''Review'' debuted on January 27, 1935, when Ochs's illness affected his ability to read every issue, bringing about substantial circulation. In February 1937, ''The New York Times'' started a column titled, "In Europe"—later "Affairs in Europe" and eventually "Abroad"—written by correspondent Anne O'Hare McCormick. McCormick was previously noted for reporting on

fascism in Europe Fascist movements in Europe were the set of various fascist ideologies which were practiced by governments and political organizations in Europe during the 20th century. Fascism was born in Italy following World War I, and other fascist move ...

, warning of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

's rise in 1921. As Sulzberger took the reins from Ochs, fascism continued to grip Europe; Mussolini prepared to go to war with

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

,

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

founded the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' to fulfill the goal of retaking

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

's lost territory and to annex new territories. Domestically, the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

faced opposition while the Great Depression continued. The

Spanish coup of July 1936 The Spanish coup of July 1936( or, among the rebels, ) was a military uprising that was intended to overthrow the Spanish Second Republic, but precipitated the Spanish Civil War, in which Nationalists fought against Republicans for control o ...

precipitated the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. While in

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, Frank Kluckhohn was the first to report on thirty-two German and Italian planes supporting the

Nationalist faction The Nationalist faction (), also Rebel faction () and Francoist faction () was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup of July 1936 ...

. Germany and Italy did not want their intervention in the war to be publicized and the revelation nearly cost Kluckhohn his life, forcing him to flee Spain. By 1938, a tense air surrounded much of the world as the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

'' and the

occupation of Czechoslovakia Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

solidified the beginning of a global war. During this time, ''The New York Times'' faced its own issues. On February 22, 1937, editorial head Rollo Ogden died. Sulzberger appointed John H. Finley to Ogden's post in April, though Finley would retire in November 1938 but retained his role in the ''Times'' as editor emeritus; Charles Merz became the head of the editorial page. Finley suffered a coronary embolism in his sleep in March 1940. On the morning of May 6, 1937, Ochs's widow, Effie Wise, died. Sulzberger continued to feign neutrality until June 1938. The paper experienced an editorial shift as a byproduct of Charles Merz's shared ideology with Sulzberger. While the ''Times'' shifted its spacing to cover more of the war, the paper's editorials had a strong crusading spirit; though this belief was in opposition to what Ochs had established, Sulzberger and Merz felt as though the paper was firmly established as a newspaper for news and could properly split its editorials from its news. ''The New York Times'' was compelled to establish that the United States had an international role to play and that it needed to defend itself, government structure, and civil liberties to uphold democracy. The ''Times'' urged the United States to impose sanctions, as Europe had, on Italy following the country's war in Ethiopia. Through dwindling hope for the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

in other newspapers, ''The New York Times'' wrote that the United States must shoulder its responsibilities "as a world power". The most extensive of these editorials came in February 1937, when the ''Times'' vehemently opposed Roosevelt's efforts to expand the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. Fifty editorials were written before Roosevelt ultimately ended his plan six months later.

Gay Talese Gaetano "Gay" Talese (; born February 7, 1932) is an American writer. As a journalist for ''The New York Times'' and ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'' magazine during the 1960s, he helped to define contemporary literary journalism and is considere ...

described ''The New York Times'' of the 1930s as a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

paper.

1939–1945: World War II, the Manhattan Project, and international edition

On September 1, 1939, Germany

invaded Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet ...

. At the

Reichstag building The Reichstag (; ) is a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin that is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany. The Ne ...

, Hitler gave a speech accusing Poland of attacking Germany heard by ''The New York Times''s radio room. The Sunday issue of the ''Times'' on September 3 carried a seldom-used top line reading, "Chamberlain Announces Britain Is At War With Germany". The issue carried

Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from ...

's full shortwave address to the United Kingdom. As

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

continued, the ''Times'' used largescale headlines to update readers on the development of the war, including the

occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself Neutral countries in World War II, neutral, but that neutrality did not prevent Nazi Germany from Military occupation, occupying the country soon after the outbreak of ...

, the invasion of

the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

,

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, and

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. As Ochs had focused on delivering the news over advertisements during World War I, Sulzberger made room for developments in World War II. The ''Times'' reported on several exclusive stories, including the

Yugoslav coup d'état The Yugoslav coup d'état took place on 27 March 1941 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when the regency led by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was overthrown and King Peter II fully assumed monarchical powers. The coup was planned and conducte ...

. The war also resulted in several casualties.

Byron Darnton Byron Darnton (November 8, 1897 – October 18, 1942) was an American reporter and war correspondent for ''The New York Times'' in the Pacific theater during World War II. He was killed in 1942 by a bomb dropped from an American B-25 Mitche ...

, a war correspondent covering the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, was killed by an American

B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served ...

bomber in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

; his work was valued by

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...

. Other casualties include London correspondent Bob Post who died during the bombing of Wilhemshaven in February 1943. ''The New York Times'' experimented with several ideas and forged its own political structure. The ''Times'' rejected the "Independent Democrat" label during the Ochs era and supported Republican

Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee for president. Willkie appeale ...

in

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, events related to World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *Janu ...

, believing that an unprecedented third term for any president would not be beneficial for the country, though forwent the third term principle to support

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

under the presumption that he would win the war over a nascent candidate. As ''The New York Times Magazine'' flourished and the ''Times'' grew to the largest staff in the world, Sulzberger ran a women's column, "News of Food", that received criticism. Sulzberger established the "Fashion of The Times"—a fashion show held in the Times Hall—amid hesitation from editorial staff; Ochs had run fashion contests as far back as 1913. The fashion show was much the work of Virginia Pope, a fashion editor who ran several smaller fashion shows in women's clubs but desired a larger audience. The Fashion of the Times earned the paper substantial gains. In 1944, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) approved the ''Times''s acquisition of

WQXR-FM WQXR-FM (105.9 FM) is an American non-commercial classical radio station, licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the North Jersey and New York City area. It is owned by the nonprofit organization New York Public Radio (NYPR), which also op ...

, marking the first non-''Times'' investment since the Jones era. Amid World War II, Sulzberger and his assistant,

James Reston James "Scotty" Barrett Reston (November 3, 1909 – December 6, 1995) was an American journalist whose career spanned the mid-1930s to the early 1990s. He was associated for many years with ''The New York Times.'' Early life and educati ...

, traveled from Habbaniyah, Iraq to Tehran to meet Donald H. Connolly at the Persian Gulf Service Command Headquarters. Connolly's men supplied Allied troops; while beneficial, they felt that their work was disconnected from combat, monotonous, and tedious in extreme hot temperatures. Sulzberger proposed keeping the troops informed to improve their morale. The ''Times'' would provide the armed forces with an eight-page paper subtitled ''Overseas Weekly'', a smaller version of ''The News of the Week in Review''. Army Special Services was initially eager to work with ''The New York Times'' but backed out upon realizing that other newspapers would be infuriated if they discovered that the ''Times'' was the sole provider of news to the troops. An aide to Connolly suggested that the ''Times'' could be sold as a commodity through the

Army & Air Force Exchange Service The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES, also referred to as The Exchange and post exchange/PX or base exchange/BX) provides goods and services at U.S. Army, Air Force, and Space Force installations worldwide, operating department stores, ...

. ''The New York Times'' cast Matrix (printing), matrices in plastic and flew them to Iran. Bookkeepers could not accept free commodities, so the issues were sold at (). The ''Overseas Weekly'' issue was a success and would later be available in Japan through ''

The Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'' and in Germany through the ''

Frankfurter Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' (, ) was a German-language newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in Frankfurt. In Nazi Germany, it was considered the only mass publication not completely control ...

''. By the end of World War II in 1945, over nine hundred employees of the ''Times'' had left to serve in the United States Army, Army, United States Navy, Navy, and United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps. Delegates at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in April 1945 were surprised to have received a four-page copy of ''The New York Times'' dated at 2 a.m. The special edition Fax, facsimile was the first of its kind; it was set in type in New York and sent to an Associated Press receiver at the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' Building at 901 Mission Street. The paper negatives were processed at the ''Richmond Independent'' processing plant. Through the conference, the ''Times'' provided the United Nations delegates with this service for free. ''The New York Times'' would attempt facsimile in February 1948 to fourteen department stores in New York and the Columbia University School of Journalism. For Franklin_D._Roosevelt#Final_months_and_death, Roosevelt's death, Sulzberger turned to the blackened borders that were present for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but limited its scope to the Roosevelt editorial. To triumphantly declare the signage of the German Instrument of Surrender and the end of World War II in Europe, the ''Times'' used a rare four-line display foremost proclaiming, "The war in Europe is ended!" The staff of ''The New York Times'' questioned the sudden disappearance of science reporter William L. Laurence in April 1945, though managing editor Edwin Leland James and Sulzberger were vaguely aware of his assignment. Leading up to World War II, Laurence was versed in the activities of the Columbia University Physics Department, including the discovery of Uranium-235. Writing for ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in September 1940, Laurence publicized the

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

race between the United States and Germany. Copies of the paper in public libraries were seized by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, and soon thereafter scientists sought to avoid Laurence. He theorized that they were working on an atomic bomb and did not attempt to investigate the matter further. The United States government requested Laurence's services in April 1945 and he was made the historian of the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

. Laurence regularly spoke to the project's director, Leslie Groves, and provided eyewitness accounts of the tests, including Trinity (nuclear test), Trinity. Believing the tests to be major stories themselves, Laurence wrote a confidential letter to Sulzberger. The staff of the ''Times'' learned through the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civil ...

that Laurence was the sole witness of the Manhattan Project.

Notes

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''The New York Times''

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* * {{Refend The New York Times History of newspapers in the United States, New York Times