Art, literature & culture

Founding of The New York Times

18 September 1851

The New York Times was founded by the journalist Henry Jarvis Raymond and the banker George Jones as the New-York Daily Times, a penny paper aimed at a serious audience. The name was shortened in 1857. After a period of decline it was bought in 1896 by Adolph Ochs, who adopted the motto All the News That's Fit to Print and built its reputation for thorough reporting, and his descendants of the Ochs-Sulzberger family have controlled it since. In 1971 it published the Pentagon Papers, a secret government study of the Vietnam War, and won a Supreme Court case over the right to do so. It has won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other newspaper, and in recent years it has built a large digital subscription business.

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The era

This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.