The Times: How The Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism, Nagournery - B +

                        This is the story of the world's greatest newspaper over the four decades from 1976 to 2016. It successfully navigated and thrived through the transformation of journalism from the time of print advertising to the digital era, and still remains the 'paper of record.'

                       The Times of the mid-1970's was run by Abe Rosenthal; Bronx raised, CCNY educated, and totally committed to the highest standard of objective journalism. He loved the Times and worked to maintain its position as the nation's premier newspaper. He and the publisher, Punch Sulzberger, changed the paper by  increasing its features on the arts and entertainment and adding more photographs. Metropolitan coverage expanded to the suburbs as people fled the city amidst its financial crisis. Sections on science, lifestyle, culture, the weekend, and entertainment were added. For all of the Times' success, Rosenthal was a bully overseeing a paranoid, unhappy newsroom. He was right of center, fearful of left-leaning politics and abhorred homosexuality. His last great contribution came on the day the Challenger exploded in 1986. He cleared the front page, allocated ten pages of the paper to the story and declared that the banner headline would be simple and to the point: 'The Shuttle Explodes.' The Challenger coverage won a Pulitzer. His mandatory retirement was sixteen months away. Rosenthal's personal life was spiraling out of control and he did not like Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., who would be replacing his dad as publisher. Punch Sulzberger relieved Rosenthal and replaced him with Max Frankel, whom he tasked with improving the paper, making it a happier place, and preparing the Times to begin using color. That said, the paper was immeasurably stronger than it had been when Rosenthal took over in 1969.

                    Frankel had arrived in the US at the age of 10 when his parents fled Poland and the Nazis. He graduated from Columbia and worked at the Times his entire career. He immediately succeeded in making the newsroom a more relaxed place. One of the most important decisions he faced was the selection of a Washington bureau chief, a job he once had. Many felt that the 200 miles between NY and DC felt like 1,000 as there was a constant rivalry and in NY, they could never get over being beaten by the Post on Watergate. He appointed Craig Whitney to oversee the 65 person staff. That Whitney was the wrong man for the job became apparent in his first year, and Whitney was soon replaced by Howell Raines. In 1992, forty year old Arthur, Jr. replaced his dad as publisher of the Times. He was the fifth member of the family to hold the position. Sulzberger's first major decision was to move Raines to NY to head up the editorial page. And most importantly, he announced that he was 'platform agnostic' as the Times moved into the era of the digitization of the news. The man who succeeded Frankel as executive editor in 1994 was Joseph Lelyveld.  

               Under Lelyveld, the company began its transition to the internet. The decade also saw the Times come to grips with the changing focus of news throughout the country. It resisted reporting on rumors about Bill Clinton's extra-marital escapades until Kenneth Starr began his pursuit of the scandal with Monica Lewinsky. The Times worked diligently to uphold its traditional standards and struggled with confirming its sources at a time when news reporting was becoming instantaneous. Lelyveld would later complain that "Rosenthal had the Pentagon Papers" and he "got the semen stained dress." That said, the Starr Report and the impeachment were the most important stories during his tenure. As the decade. came to a close, the integration of the website and the newsroom continued to be a colossal, generational  struggle. 

               Sulzberger appointed Howell Raines to the top position after Raines assured him he would promote a Black man to managing editor and, he would focus on the necessary digital transformation. His first day on the job was Sept. 5, 2001. The Times tackled 9/11 with its usual thoroughness and commitment to excellence, placing sixty six stories in the next day's paper. The Times coverage of Sept. 11 won six Pulitzers. The Times had met the challenge, but Raines was pushing too hard, particularly on the Washington Bureau. The entire organization became unsettled, as Raines and the DC Bureau Chief, Jill Abramson, battled. Raines brought in two reporters to the Washington Bureau who he tasked with delving into the cascading drumbeats of war against Iraq. One was a hard charging reporter with extensive mideast experience, Judith Miller. Another reporter who Raines was enthused about was Jayson Blair, a young Black man from the DC area. Managing editor Gerald  Boyd, the Black man that Raines put in place because of the publisher's concerns about the paper being lily white, also backed the young man. Blair was required to quit for making up stories all over the country when in fact he never left his Brooklyn apartment. An internal investigation lead to a four page story in the Sunday paper acknowledging significant institutional failures. After a town hall with 600 Times professionals was a disaster, the bottom fell out, and both Raines and Boyd were given their walking papers. 

              Bill Keller was the man selected to take over. Another problem from the Raines era was the work of his protege, Judith Miller. She had reported on the Bush administration's rush to war in a generally supportive fashion. Investigations by the news staff and the new Ombudsman concluded that the Times had been "duped" and certainly had not exercised its usual editorial rigor. After Miller went to jail to protect a source who was on Cheney's staff and, who she misled her superiors about, her long career was over. The Great Recession forced the Times to do something it had never done: it laid off newsroom staff. Newspaper circulations and ad revenues began dropping at the turn of the century. The Times folded the Metropolitan section into the paper, cut its dividend and reduced pay across the board. "The Times website was a glimmer of good news in the swirl of plummeting revenues, declining readership, and layoffs that engulfed the newspaper as it struggled through the 2008 recession and the reordering of the business." The debate began about whether they could implement a paywall. The Times merged the print and digital newsrooms in 2010 and began to charge for a digital subscription the following year. 

               In 2011, Jill Abramson was appointed executive editor. Her task was more difficult than her predecessors'. The job had once been exclusively about the newspaper, but now it encompassed the Times website and ongoing coordination with the business side. She would later say that she hated the job from day one and constantly was in conflict with the executive trying to make the NYT a successful digital business. She was fired less than three years in and replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor. Baquet fully embraced the challenges of merging the print and digital sides of the Times. The Times was transformed. By the end of 2016, it would have almost two million digital subscribers. AG Sulzberger succeeded his dad as publisher in 2018. Two years later, the digital subscriptions topped 6.5 million and the print paper dropped to 374,000. 

              I have revered this paper for sixty years. It was my introduction to the world outside of blue-collar southeastern Queens. I consider it one of the most important influences in my life. I'm very happy that it has survived, and a few years ago I purchased a gift subscription for my granddaughter.