Karina Strateichuk
Kamianets-Podilskiy Ivan Ohienko National University
Scientific Supervisor S.I.Nykytiuk
THE NEW YORK TIMES”: EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT
Abstract: The article deals with the main stages of the typological
transformation and change in the editorial policy of the New York Times under the
influence of socio-economic factors that transformed this newspaper from a
publication circulated only within New York to the influential a newspaper with a
national and wide international distribution and its current relevance in the
present.
Key words: newspaper, press, publishing house, development, information.
«He who owns the information, owns the world,» W.Churchill
This is one of the most famous quotations which Winston Churchill, British prime minister, repeated all the time. Nowadays, we can find necessary information in different way, for example in Wikipedia or some other internet resource, but at all ages, newspapers were the most popular and powerful weapon.
Both now and always, people trusted more newspapers, because as a rule, there are only established facts and always “spot news “. If in the town or city was a dreadful accident or someone died a painful or even famous person was caught on affair in the evening or at night, so then in the morning this news was on the first page.
The aim of this research is to bring to light how the theme and direction of
“The New York Times” changed over under the socio-political pressure.
Some researchers such as Davis E. H. (“History of the New York Times”), Matthias A. Shaaber (“The History of the First English Newspaper”) and Tebbel J.V. (“The compact history of the American newspaper”) investigated the history and development of the newspaper and highlight these problems.
The first newspaper were published in 1609 in German, but unfortunately, we do not know where it was because on that papers were not any information about town where it was written. Some scholars guess that it was connected with government prosecution.
Newspaper was shared around the Europe, but what we know about the USA. Today America has many famous newspapers, which is known, around the world. But, this was not always the case. For a long time US was ruled by Britain and that is why American newspaper saw the world relatively late [1]. But never the less on September 25, 1690 in Boston was the first American publication and the first story was “The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of thanksgiving to God for his Mercy…”.
Unfortunately, it was first and the last publication. The second one would printed after a long time – 14 years [6].
Nowadays newspapers are still actually. Most people, especially in Great Britain, prefer newspaper than internet resources. About 30,000,000 newspapers are sold every day in Great Britain and North Ireland when in USA over 56,000,000 one are sold daily. Generally, British and American press divided into quality press, yellow press and general press. Quality press includes magazines and newspapers, where is impartial and balanced submission of information. General press generally involve political materials. What about yellow press, so this one include bad quality and “cheep” information for making agiotage.
How we can see above newspapers belong to quality press where most of all truthful and verified information.
All we know that in the USA a lot of various newspapers and magazines, which people buy every day, in spite of the internet resource. “The New York Time” is one of the three largest and the most famous US newspapers (also “ the Wall Street Journal” and “USA Today”). It was founded in September 1851 by the American journalist G.J. Raymond and banker J. Jones as the New-York Daily Times (since 1857, the modern name). In 1896, American publisher A. Oks bought it and this one became the property of The New York Times Company (the Oks owns controlling shareholding in the company until now). Adolf Oks invested a lot of money in equipment, state, new printing houses, gradually expanding the geography of its distribution. After 40 years, the daily circulation of the New York Times increased from 19 thousand to 400 thousand copies [4].
Technical progress, the introduction of new information technologies, cash receipts from advertising have allowed to gradually was outside the scope beyond a specific county or state. The appearance of broadcasting did not slow down the growth of periodicals in the 1920s and 1930s. For example, in June 1922, the New York Times took forty columns for daily radio information [3].
In turn, the change of publisher and editor meant the new evolutionary period of the New York Times, since the owner and publisher of the newspaper has full authority over the organization of business and editorial activities of the publication. A. X. Sulzberger (publisher of the newspaper 1935 – 1961) strengthened the orientation of the newspaper as an official publication. During these years, NYT journalists did not just reporte the news, but interpreted the events too. In 1945, for the first time, with the help of facsimile print, “Time” transferred the contents of the newspaper to San Francisco, which was the first NYT distribution outside of New York [1].
In the 1960s, a financial crisis began in New York City. The press has become the object of some hostility; she was accused of spreading bad news. That is why in these years, the New York Times began to publish more articles about the private life of people, more entertainment materials. Various sections were introduced devoted to various spheres of human activity: science, automobiles, visual arts, sports, computers, home cooking. The newspaper provided readers with a daily chronicle of events and a variety of topics of articles, combining “hard” and “soft” news. The volume of the newspaper has increased significantly due to additional advertising inserts. The emergence of new thematic sections attracted hundreds of regular readers [1].
However, in the opinion of A. Rosenthal, the chief editor of that time, many innovative articles downgraded the level of the newspaper. Therefore, in the 1970s sharp social materials were considered unacceptable for the NYT, which was based on the history and tradition of the newspaper. Thanks to the demands of A. Rosenthal, the newspaper continued the tradition of a quality and serious publication.
In the 1980s, the New York Times finally gained the status of a nationwide publication. The newspaper went beyond the boundaries of New York, releasing a three-part publication that goes to California. Continuing to be called the New York Times, it ceased to be the publication of only New York and its environs [4]. The home delivery system is being improved and a large company was starting to expand its subscription in the provinces. NYT was issued in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Massachusetts and another 25 states. In 1983, Lexis Nexis announces access to the full text of NYT articles 24 hours after publication [1].
Of the early 1990s the new generation was losing interest in reading serious newspapers. Thus, the publishers of a large respectable newspaper were forced to adapt to the desires and moods of a new generation of readers. It was decided to simplify the official style of the newspaper, paying more attention to scandalous articles and criminal chronicles. In particular, in the early 1990s, publications appeared that contradicted the ethical standards of the formerly strict NYT. Such innovations were also a consequence of the economic crisis of 1990-1992, which reduced the amount of advertising in newspapers and magazines. However, in the 1990s these bold experiments were fraught with consequences: 50 thousand subscribers refused to write a newspaper. Subsequently, the new strategy, which was chosen by A. O. Sulzberger Jr. (since 1993), began to bring positive results. The young owner changed the focus of the elite NYT, addressing it not only to rich people from the upper class, but also to representatives of various social groups [1].
Nowadays the newspaper consists of three sections. The first it is a news: international, national, metropolitan, business, technology, science, health, sports, metro, education, weather and obituaries. The second it is some thoughts: editorials, non-editorial articles, letters to the editor. And the last it is entertainment: art, cinema, theater, travel, guide to New York, food and wine, home and garden, fashion and style, crossword puzzle.
After analyzing the most readable articles in 2017, according to “The New York Times”, we can say that of 100 popular articles, most people like to read about politics (there are 56 articles), on the second place articles about famous people (there are 12 articles), on the third place are articles about entertainment (11), and then about criminals (9), natural disasters (7), scientific articles (4) and the last one is sport (1). So we can see that American people prefer politic articles and do not interested in articles about sport [5].
References:
1. Davis E. H. History of the New York Times, 1851–1921. N. Y., 1969
- Matthias A. Shaaber. The History of the First English Newspaper. Journal article. Vol. 29, No. 4 (October 1932), p. 551-587
- Tebbel J.V. The compact history of the American newspaper. N. Y., 1969
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. The New York Times American Newspaper. URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-New-York-Times (дата звернення 26.03.2019 p.)
- New York Time. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/08/reader-center/top-stories.html (дата звернення03/29/2019 p.)
- Mitchell Stephens. History of Newspapers. For Collier’s Encyclopedia. URL: https://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/Collier%27s%20page.htm (дата звернення 03.03.2019 p.)