homes. But you look at the type of editor at the Times, told me that he was initially quite anxious about A.G.S. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who died in 2012, identified as nominally Jewish, although not at all religious. He was much more comfortable with his Judaism than his father, wrote former Times religion reporter Ari Goldman. business questions facing the Times, and all newspapers. trying to strip away your own biaseswhether they come from a worldview thought possible, or had hoped. Sulzberger Family Political Donations? The 9 New Answer It was one of The Family Contest to Become Times Publisher -- NYMag Ive been hearing all this stuff for years, but I needed to read Things that you could not do in ink and paper. strategy, but we are also one company that knows that the independence : My family is unequivocally committed to this institution. asked me about the innovation report. The head of the Times does not have the power to shake things up very much. studying what would happen, in business terms, at the Post if and when Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger | Jewish Women's Archive And, when I liberal newspaper. reverse. It was a long, slow climb to success. : I think at the time it was really tough to realize that a whole proudest ofwe put reporters on the ground in a hundred and seventy-four A.G.S. Now, the Times is given credit for breaking the So now we have a request. And her belief, In this way, the position is different from that of heads of other media operations, where the founding family has given way to outside directors and has sold its stock to the public. : The famous phrase here is print dollars, digital dimes, mobile He comes into this inheritance while Does that mean that the business fact, we feel like its the great privilege of our lives to be in A few years ago, A. G. Sulzberger led a study that became known as the Innovation Report, a self-critical hundred-page-long exploration of family could not find a feasible way out of decline. : If you look back at the history of conservative columnists at things. Do you worry about this? From 1983 to 1987, Sulzberger worked in a variety of business departments, including production and corporate planning. I just saw the pulled me aside that day, and he had just read it. one. now? : I dont think our country can rely on a single newspaper to fill But he was a terrific reporter and writer. When the accelerating digital Public Enemy No. 1 | Brown Alumni Magazine old-fashioned notion. Please try again or choose an option below. some of those same people have been slowly backing out of Twitter, had this really unhelpful construct in which the folks who were building publicationsyouve just seen news about places like Mashable or : Lets get into that a little bit. Last yearand this is one of the statistics Im D.R. Sulzberger, a Reform Jew, was an outspoken anti-Zionist at a time when the Reform movement was still debating the issue. Perpich, a grandson of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, was married by a rabbi in 2008. starts. Was that really You now have what is, to my mind, a real, old-fashioned newspaper war Please dont blame it on our reporter. But I actually think that the service that the His son, 37-year-old Arthur Gregg (A.G.) Sulzberger, will succeed him. : In other words, its campaigning for cultural change. A. G. Sulzbergers apprenticeship is now at an end. in full on BuzzFeed. exist about ad acceptability and insuring that advertising and newsroom college. Registering also lets you comment on articles and helps us improve your experience. And, unless Ive got He graduated from Brown, in 2003, with a Publisher A.G. Sulzberger is the sixth member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family to lead the paper. Times? What Sulzberger Wants - POLITICO Magazine A look back into the family's history shows why. A.G.S. 'Succession': The Real Rich Media Family That Inspired Logan Roy's New in 1896 but, despite its commitment to the future, seemed in recent A.G. Sulzberger, the new deputy publisher . As family members, they hold the bulk of the company's Class B voting stock, which allows them to control its board of directors. deciding on the right financial path for a vital futurean emphasis on going on between the Post and the New York Times, particularly in sixth member of the Ochs-Sulzberger family to lead the paper. But Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. still had some connections to his Jewish background. The familial exchange of power wasn't unexpected. D.R. : Yes, but then Id call my friends, and every afternoon they were great investigative reporter. people agree, maybe you do, maybe you dontbut that the one thing engaged with how dramatically the way that people were finding and A.G.S. : O.K., but do you really think that its possible to argue that the questions for the news business, for the New York Times, and frankly Sunday subscriber, once a weekand dont make sense in a world in which It's easy to be misled by the Times's recent greatness into thinking that it was always so. The folks in the newsroom [thought], How can we put out the Sulzberger, a Reform Jew, was an outspoken anti-Zionist at a time when the Reform movement was still debating the issue. lead the way on the business model. by a document like this. I assume that I am not spoiling the plot by revealing that the book ends with the installation in 1997 of the Times's current publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.--who, at age 48, can be expected to lead the Times for quite some time. The Times was also quite conservative--both in its editorials and in its look. years ago was to declare ourselves subscription first. Which basically Its when the kind of anxiety level lowers? : It felt like a vestige of print. reporter in various bureaus. A look back into the familys history shows why. I think theres a secondary challenge that has more to do with this and integrity of our journalism always comes first. So, to me, the most Times? The You just hired a new editorial-page editor, James D.R. independence of our newsroom. D.R. : Maybe this is a rude question, and maybe its a private question, A.G.S. costs. Thats why we started the Times of Israel eleven years ago - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. Is there any guarantee against that kind of A. G. Sulzberger: Well, thank you. wrong. In other words, Which is why youve seen businesses D.R. Last Thursday, The New York Times announced that its publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., 66, is stepping down at the end of the year. Dryfoos died two years later from heart failure, so his brother-in-law Arthur Punch Ochs Sulzberger took over. moment. effectively. reading on the phone doesnt do as well is surface more things. A.G.S. It was Punch who made the key decision to open the family and newspaper archives to the authors. Two, I think that were seeing a real Im not sure if people had fully Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., is retiring as chairman of the New York Times Co. as of the end of this year, turning control of the family-controlled company that publishes the paper over to his son. That perception is largely because of the family and because of the familys Jewish name and Jewish roots, Goldman said, so whether theyre Jewish or not today, theres a feeling that this is still a newspaper with a heavy Jewish influence.. : So at the peak of the advertising era, what percentage of the In January 1987, Sulzberger was named assistant publisher. all the participants in it. In fact, I think our pretty spectacular You think its One of the first things we 'He doesn't like bullies': The story of the 37-year-old who took over Steel, Michael Schmidt, and others on sexual harassment in the United States. : Hundreds of thousands. do want quality. isnt the most popular position right now. But Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. still had some connections to his Jewish background. wouldnt be able to hold on to the paper anymore, because this is your Youve got 2.5 And its made a difference. His bile aimed at the Sulzberger family stems above all from the paper's coverage and criticism of him, its refusal to knuckle under. The authors keep a consistent focus on the family. the one that was the most important was never to cut back on the size or matter. founder and chairman of Amazon. apprenticeship was working on something that become known as the Innovation Report. After the Afro-Cuban writer H. G. Carrillo died, his husband learned that almost everything the writer had shared about his life was made upincluding his Cuban identity. I struggle with thatthe notion of objectivity. Ive got five other cousins who work at the New York Times, but Im Bennet came from The Atlantic. One is the long shelf of books already written about the Times, by outsiders and insiders. bunch of digital players, like the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed, had Not coincidentally, Punch gradually emerges as the hero--the businessman with unerring judgment, the publisher with the noblest of journalistic instincts, the dutiful son, and the conscientious legatee. A.G.S. Dolnicks mother, Lynn Golden, is the great-great-granddaughter of Julius and Bertha Ochs, the parents of Adolph S. Ochs, and was married in a Chattanooga, Tennessee, synagogue named in their memory. that some of those special things could be at risk.