Who Owns The New York Times?

Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones founded The New York Times on September 18, 1851, as the New-York Daily Times. Raymond was a journalist who had previously worked at Horace Greeley's New York Tribune. The newspaper launched with a stated commitment to factual, non-partisan reporting, positioning itself against the more sensationalist press of the era.

The newspaper struggled financially through the 1880s and early 1890s. In 1896, Adolph Ochs, a newspaper publisher from Chattanooga, Tennessee, purchased the struggling paper for $75,000. Ochs established the motto "All the News That's Fit to Print," which remains on the newspaper's masthead today, and repositioned the paper as a serious, authoritative publication. Under Ochs, The Times reduced its price from three cents to one cent in 1898, dramatically increasing circulation and advertising revenue.

The Times established its reputation for investigative journalism and public service reporting in the early 20th century. The newspaper published the Pentagon Papers in 1971, classified Defense Department documents about the Vietnam War, after the Nixon administration sought to suppress publication. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of The Times in a landmark First Amendment decision. The Times has won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other newspaper, with 137 as of 2025.

The Ochs-Sulzberger family has maintained editorial control since 1896 through successive generations. Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, daughter of Adolph Ochs, oversaw the paper through much of the mid-20th century. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Sr. served as publisher from 1963 to 1992, followed by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. from 1992 to 2017. A.G. Sulzberger became publisher in 2018.

The Times launched its website in 1996 and introduced a metered paywall in 2011, requiring readers to subscribe after reading a set number of free articles per month. The digital subscription model proved highly successful. By 2020, The Times had surpassed 6 million digital subscribers. The company acquired The Athletic, a sports journalism subscription service, in 2022 for approximately $550 million, and Wordle, the viral word game, in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. By late 2025, The New York Times Company reported over 11 million total subscribers across its digital and print products, making it one of the most successful digital news subscription businesses in the world.