The New York Times Company

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Editor: Adele Hast
Date: 1991
From: International Directory of Company Histories(Vol. 4. )
Publisher: Gale
Document Type: Topic overview
Length: 2,276 words

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The New York Times Company

229 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
U.S.A.
(212) 556-1234
Fax: (212) 556-4607

Public Company
Incorporated:
1851 as Raymond, Jones & Company
Employees: 10,400
Sales: $1.78 billion
Stock Exchange: American

The New York Times Company (NYTC) is a large diversified media and communications business engaged in newspaper and magazine publishing, broadcasting and information services, and, to a lesser extent, forest products. Its principal property is one of the world’s great newspapers, The New York Times, founded in 1851. During its history of nearly 140 years, the company has grown to include along with The New York Times, 32 regional newspapers and 17 magazines, including such popular journals as Family Circle, McCall’s, Golf Digest, and Tennis. The company also operates five television stations, two radio stations, a news service, and a features syndicate, and licenses databases and copyrights. In addition it has equity interests in three Canadian newsprint mills and a partnership interest in a Maine paper mill.

The principal founders of The New York Times were Henry Jarvis Raymond, a sometime politician, reporter, and editor who learned his trade working for Horace Greeley on the New York Tribune, and George Jones, an Albany, New York, banker who had also once worked for Greeley as a business manager on the Tribune. Raymond proposed a newspaper that would present the news in a conservative and objective fashion, in contrast to the yellow journalism of the day, which emphasized crime, scandal, and radical politics. They raised $70,000 to establish Raymond, Jones & Company, largely by selling stock to wealthy upstate New York investors, and set up their editorial offices in a dilapidated six-story brownstone on Nassau Street in downtown New York City. The first issue of The New York Daily Times— the word “Daily” was dropped from the title in 1857—was dated September 18, 1851, and announced an editorial policy that would emphasize accurate reporting and moderation of opinion and expression.

Jones handled the company’s business affairs, and Raymond, as editor, provided journalistic leadership. Under their management, helped by booming population growth in New York City, the Times grew rapidly, reaching 10,000 circulation within ten days and 24,000 by the end of its first year. In 1858 the paper moved into a new five-story building containing the most modern printing equipment. As the Times prospered, Raymond established and continually encouraged the high standards of journalism that prevail to this day. It also became a newspaper of record. For example, it carried the entire text of Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” on the front page on November 20, 1863. Among other journalistic successes, the Times provided outstanding coverage of the U.S. Civil War, with Raymond himself reporting on the Battle of Bull Run.

Raymond was active in Republican politics throughout the war. He was present at the creation of the party in Pittsburgh in 1856 and wrote its first statement of principles. He wrote most of the party platform in 1864. Between political activity and journalism, Raymond was chronically overworked for years, and his...






Source Citation

Source Citation
"The New York Times Company." International Directory of Company Histories, edited by Adele Hast, vol. 4, St. James Press, 1991, pp. 647-649. link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2840800221/AONE?u=gale&sid=bookmark-AONE. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.
  

Gale Document Number: GALE|CX2840800221