Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who has died aged 86 after a long illness, was a businessman best known for being the former publisher of the New York Times.
His family has controlled the newspaper since his grandfather, Arthur Ochs, acquired it in 1896 and when Mr Sulzberger retired in 1992 after three decades at the paper's helm he was succeeded by his son, Arthur Jr.
The company has struggled in recent years but during Mr Sulzberger's tenure it reached new levels of influence and profit. Its flaship paper received more than 30 Pulitzer prizes and won a historic 1964 legal ruling that strengthened First Amendment protections for the press.
Under his leadership the paper's weekday circulation climbed from 714,000 in 1963 to 1.1 million in 1992. Over the same period, the annual revenues of the Times' corporate parent rose from $100m (£62m) to $1.7 billion (£ 1.05bn).
Known as "Punch", Mr Sulzberger was the only grandson of Adolph Sochs, the son of Bavarian immigrants who took over the Times in 1896 and built it into the most influential US newspaper. The family retains a controlling interest to this day, holding a separate block of Class B shares that have more powerful voting rights than the company's publicly traded shares.
Power was thrust on Mr Sulzberger at the age of 37 after the sudden death of his brother-in-law in 1963. He had been in the Times executive suite for eight years in a role he later described as "vice-president in charge of nothing".
But Mr Sulzberger directed the Times's evolution from an encyclopedic paper of record to a more reader-friendly product which reached into the suburbs and across the US.
During his tenure, the Times started a national edition, bought its first colour presses, and introduced popular as well as lucrative new sections covering topics such as science, food and entertainment.
A key figure in the transformation was AM Rosenthal, executive editor from 1977 to 1986. Mr Rosenthal, who died in 2006, called Mr Sulzberger "probably the best publisher in modern American history".
Mr Sulzberger retired as chairman and chief executive of the company in 1997. His son then was named chairman. Mr Sulzberger stayed on the Times board of directors until 2002.
In 1971, the Times led the First Amendment fight to keep the government from suppressing publication of the Pentagon Papers, a series of classified reports on the Vietnam War. Asked by a reporter who at the Times made the decision to publish the papers, Mr Sulzberger gestured toward his chest and silently mouthed the word "Me".
Mr Sulzberger read the more than 7000 pages of the Pentagon Papers before deciding to publish them. After reading the papers, he was asked what he thought. "Oh, I would think about 20 years to life," he responded.
But in a landmark decision, the US Supreme Court eventually sided with the Times and The Washington Post, which had begun publishing the papers a few days after the Times.
He was born in New York, the only son of Arthur Hays Sulzberger and his wife, Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger. One of his three sisters was named Judy, and from early on he was known as Punch, after the puppet characters Punch and Judy.
He served in the Marines during the Second World War and, briefly, in Korea. He later observed, in a typically self-deprecating remark, that: "My family didn't worry about me for a minute. They knew if I got shot in the head it wouldn't do any harm."
He married Barbara Grant in 1948, and the couple had two children, Arthur Jr and Karen. After a divorce in 1956, he married Carol Fox. The couple had a daughter, Cynthia, and Mr Sulzberger adopted Ms Fox's daughter from a previous marriage, Cathy.
Carol Sulzberger died in 1995. The following year, Mr Sulzberger married Allison Cowles, the widow of William H Cowles III, who was the president and publisher of The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle of Spokane, Washington.
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Arthur Ochs Sulzberger
Publisher;
Born: February 5, 1926; Died September 29, 2012.
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who has died aged 86 after a long illness, was a businessman best known for being the former publisher of the New York Times.
His family has controlled the newspaper since his grandfather, Arthur Ochs, acquired it in 1896 and when Mr Sulzberger retired in 1992 after three decades at the paper's helm he was succeeded by his son, Arthur Jr.
The company has struggled in recent years but during Mr Sulzberger's tenure it reached new levels of influence and profit. Its flaship paper received more than 30 Pulitzer prizes and won a historic 1964 legal ruling that strengthened First Amendment protections for the press.
Under his leadership the paper's weekday circulation climbed from 714,000 in 1963 to 1.1 million in 1992. Over the same period, the annual revenues of the Times' corporate parent rose from $100m (£62m) to $1.7 billion (£ 1.05bn).
Known as "Punch", Mr Sulzberger was the only grandson of Adolph Sochs, the son of Bavarian immigrants who took over the Times in 1896 and built it into the most influential US newspaper. The family retains a controlling interest to this day, holding a separate block of Class B shares that have more powerful voting rights than the company's publicly traded shares.
Power was thrust on Mr Sulzberger at the age of 37 after the sudden death of his brother-in-law in 1963. He had been in the Times executive suite for eight years in a role he later described as "vice-president in charge of nothing".
But Mr Sulzberger directed the Times's evolution from an encyclopedic paper of record to a more reader-friendly product which reached into the suburbs and across the US.
During his tenure, the Times started a national edition, bought its first colour presses, and introduced popular as well as lucrative new sections covering topics such as science, food and entertainment.
A key figure in the transformation was AM Rosenthal, executive editor from 1977 to 1986. Mr Rosenthal, who died in 2006, called Mr Sulzberger "probably the best publisher in modern American history".
Mr Sulzberger retired as chairman and chief executive of the company in 1997. His son then was named chairman. Mr Sulzberger stayed on the Times board of directors until 2002.
In 1971, the Times led the First Amendment fight to keep the government from suppressing publication of the Pentagon Papers, a series of classified reports on the Vietnam War. Asked by a reporter who at the Times made the decision to publish the papers, Mr Sulzberger gestured toward his chest and silently mouthed the word "Me".
Mr Sulzberger read the more than 7000 pages of the Pentagon Papers before deciding to publish them. After reading the papers, he was asked what he thought. "Oh, I would think about 20 years to life," he responded.
But in a landmark decision, the US Supreme Court eventually sided with the Times and The Washington Post, which had begun publishing the papers a few days after the Times.
He was born in New York, the only son of Arthur Hays Sulzberger and his wife, Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger. One of his three sisters was named Judy, and from early on he was known as Punch, after the puppet characters Punch and Judy.
He served in the Marines during the Second World War and, briefly, in Korea. He later observed, in a typically self-deprecating remark, that: "My family didn't worry about me for a minute. They knew if I got shot in the head it wouldn't do any harm."
He married Barbara Grant in 1948, and the couple had two children, Arthur Jr and Karen. After a divorce in 1956, he married Carol Fox. The couple had a daughter, Cynthia, and Mr Sulzberger adopted Ms Fox's daughter from a previous marriage, Cathy.
Carol Sulzberger died in 1995. The following year, Mr Sulzberger married Allison Cowles, the widow of William H Cowles III, who was the president and publisher of The Spokesman-Review and Spokane Chronicle of Spokane, Washington.
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Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.
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