The New York Times Company history

He was present at the creation of the party in Pittsburgh in 1856 and wrote its first statement of principles.

1857: The newspaper changes its name to the New York Times.

He wrote most of the party platform in 1864.

1869: Upon Henry Jarvis Raymond's death, George Jones assumes control of the newspaper.

In 1871 after a series of Times articles on the misdeeds of corrupt New York City politicians headed by William Marcy (Boss) Tweed, an attempt was made by Tweed interests to buy Raymond’s 34 shares from his widow.

In 1878, at the age of 20, he borrowed $250 to buy the controlling interest in a failing Tennessee newspaper, the Chattanooga Times, thus beginning his career as a newspaper publisher before he was old enough to vote.

The paper’s profits fell steadily until Jones’s death in 1891.

His heirs had little aptitude for the newspaper business, and the panic and depression of 1893 brought the Times close to failure.

One of his early acts after becoming publisher of the Times on August 18, 1896, was to add the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” thus serving notice that the Times would continue to avoid sensationalism and follow high editorial standards.

The expenses of covering the Spanish-American War in 1898 came close to ruining the paper, which sold then for 30 a copy.

Within a year sales jumped to seventy-five thousand and by 1901 passed one hundred thousand.

The Times's success under Ochs was due to much more than price-cutting. It scooped the world on the Japanese-Russian naval battle in 1904 by sending the first wireless dispatches from a war area.

The Times won its first Pulitzer prize in 1918 for public service.

In 1926, however the NYTC did take part ownership, along with the Kimberly & Clark Company in a Canadian paper mill, the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company, in order to assure its supplies of newsprint.

The paper bought AM radio station WQXR (1560 kHz) in 1944.

In 1957 a recapitalization split the common stock into A and B common stock, with the B shares, mostly held by the Ochs trust, having voting control over the company.

The company’s first published financial statement in 1958 showed 60 consecutive years of increasing profits.

In 1971 the Times became the centre of controversy when it published a series of reports based on the “Pentagon Papers,” a secret government study of United States involvement in the Vietnam War that had been covertly given to the Times by government officials.

The publication of the “Pentagon Papers” brought the Times a Pulitzer Prize in 1972, and by the early 21st century the paper had won more than 120 Pulitzers (including citations), considerably more than any other news organization.

When in 1976 it adopted a six-column format, bringing it in line with the format of most newspapers, the Times ' story concluded with this paragraph: "The Times used a six-column format when the newspaper first appeared on Sept.

In 1980 the NYTC paid about $100 million for a southern New Jersey cable television operation, its largest acquisition since the Cowles deal.

In 1989 the NYTC, admitting it was not making progress with cable, sold all of its cable TV properties to a consortium of Pennsylvania cable companies for $420 million.

1995: The company enters cyberspace by joining with eight other newspaper companies in an online news service, New Century Network, and by creating The New York Times Electronic Media Company as a wholly owned subsidiary to develop new electronic products and distribution channels for the Times.

In 1996, it expanded upon its broadcasting by purchasing Palmer Communications, owners of WHO-DT in Des Moines and KFOR in Oklahoma City.

The New York Times Syndicate launched a weekly column written by the Duchess of York in 1997.

Among other efforts to increase the appeal of its nationally distributed newspaper, the New York Times added new features such as Circuits, a weekly technology section introduced in 1998, which was soon generating about $1 million per month in advertising revenue.

To this end, in 1999 the NYTC invested $15 million in TheStreet.com, one of the top Internet providers of financial information and investment news and commentary, a digital publication with whom the Times shared a key customer base.

2000: The company sells its Magazine Group to Advance Publications, Inc.

The year 2001 proved turbulent for the NYTC, as the dotcom bubble burst, the economic slowdown bloomed into a full recession, and as New York City weathered the terrorist attacks of September 11.

"Keeping the Gray Lady Spry: CEO Russell Lewis Explains How Constant Investment, Even in Bad Times, Ensures New York Times Co.'s Long-Term Health," Business Week Online, November 8, 2002.

The company completed its purchase of The Washington Post's 50 percent interest in the International Herald Tribune (IHT) for US$65 million on January 1, 2003, becoming the sole owner.

On March 18, 2005, the company acquired About.com, an online provider of consumer information, for US$410 million.

The Times, on August 25, 2006, acquired Baseline StudioSystems, an online database and research service on the film and television industries for US$35 million.

On May 7, 2007, the company announced that its About.com web information service was acquiring Consumersearch.com (formerly productreviewnet.com) a Web site that compiles reviews of consumer products, for $33 million in cash.

On July 14, 2009, the company announced that WQXR was to be sold to WNYC, which moved the station to 105.9 FM and began to operate the station as non-commercial on October 8, 2009.

In December 2011, the company sold its Regional Media Group to Halifax Media Group, owners of The Daytona Beach News-Journal, for $143 million.

As of 2012, it has been modestly successful, garnering several hundred thousand subscriptions and about $100 million in annual revenue.

In 2013, the New York Times Company sold The Boston Globe and other New England media properties to John W. Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox.

In March 2020, the New York Times Company acquired subscription-based audio app, Audm.

Later that month, it acquired Wordle, an Internet word puzzle game that grew from 90 players in October 2021 to millions at the time of purchase.