The New York Times Company
Germany → USA
Media, Entertainment & Communications
Summary
Adolph Simon Ochs was born in Cincinnati in 1858 to Julius Ochs and Bertha Levy, Bavarian-Jewish immigrants who had arrived in the United States in the 1840s. He left school at eleven, worked as a printer’s apprentice, and bought the Chattanooga Times at twenty. In 1896, at thirty-eight, he acquired the failing New York Times for $75,000 and adopted the motto “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” Under his leadership the paper became the foundational American newspaper of record. The Ochs-Sulzberger family has controlled the company through a dual-class share structure ever since.
European Contribution
Bavarian-Jewish printing, literacy, and editorial traditions, transmitted from immigrant parents to an American printer's apprentice.
American Impact
Created the American newspaper of record and the editorial standard against which all subsequent American journalism is measured.
Timeline Highlights
- 1840s Ochs parents emigrate from Bavaria
- 1858 Adolph Ochs born in Cincinnati
- 1878 Acquires the Chattanooga Times
- 1896 Acquires The New York Times
- Present Ochs-Sulzberger family retains control