Adolph Ochs

A U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating Ochs.

Adolph Simon Ochs (b. March 12, 1858–April 8, 1935) was an American newspaper publisher and former owner of The New York Times and the Chattanooga Times (now the Chattanooga Times Free Press). Contrary to many of his peers at the time, he denounced yellow journalism and sensationalism, concerning himself only with trustworthy reporting and writing.

Life

Ochs was born to German-Jewish immigrants, Julius and Bertha Levy Ochs, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family moved south to Knoxville, Tennessee due to his mother's Southern sympathies during the Civil War. Ochs began his newspaper career there at age 11, leaving grammar school to become a printer's assistant at the Knoxville Chronicle.At the age of 19, he borrowed $800 to purchase a controlling interest in the Chattanooga Times, becoming its publisher. In 1896, at the age of 36, he again borrowed money to purchase The New York Times, a money-losing newspaper that had a wide range of competitors in New York City. His focus on objective news reporting (in a time when newspapers were openly and highly partisan), and a well-timed price decrease (from 3 cents per issue to 1 cent) led to its rescue from near oblivion, increasing its readership from 9,000 at the time of his purchase to 780,000 by the 1920s.

In 1884, Ochs married Effie Wise, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise of Cincinnati, who was the leading exponent of Reform Judaism in America and the founder of Hebrew Union College. His only daughter, Iphigene Bertha Ochs, married Arthur Hays Sulzberger, who became publisher of the Times after Adolph died. Her son Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger subsequently became publisher of the Times and her daughter, Ruth Holmberg, became publisher of the Chattanooga Times.

In 1904, Ochs moved the Times to a newly-built building on Longacre Square in Manhattan, which the City of New York then renamed as Times Square. On New Year's Eve 1904, Ochs had pyrotechnists illuminate his new building at One Times Square with a fireworks show from street level.

One of his nephews, Julius Ochs Adler, worked at the Times for more than 40 years, becoming general manager of The New York Times in 1935, after Ochs died. Another, John Bertram Oakes, the son of his brother George Washington Ochs Oakes, became editorial page editor of the Times' editorial page in 1961, which he edited until 1976.

Career

At the age of 11 he started at the Knoxville Chronicle as an office boy, and at 13 he became an apprentice. In 1877 Ochs joined in a fruitless effort to establish the Chattanooga Dispatch. The owner of the Chattanooga Times, victor over the Dispatch, was in difficulty and offered to sell to Ochs, then not old enough to vote. On July 2, 1878, with $37.50 working capital, Ochs became a publisher upon handing over $250, which he had borrowed, and assuming $1,500 in debts. He showed a profit the first year. In 1892 Ochs built the Chattanooga Times Building, an outstanding addition to the developing city

In 1896 Ochs acquired control of the New York Times. He mortgaged and risked everything to "conduct a high standard newspaper, clean, dignified and trustworthy." The New York Times followed the slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print." From 1896 to 1935 he raised the daily circulation enormously. Ochs started the Sunday book supplement within 10 years after taking over. In 1913 he began publishing the New York Times Index. In 1925 Ochs started advancing $50,000 annually for 10 years toward the cost of producing the Dictionary of American Biography. He established Current History magazine in 1914.

Ochs also controlled the Philadelphia Times and the Philadelphia Public Ledger, which he merged and in 1913 sold to Cyrus H. K. Curtis. Curtis merged sections of this acquisition with The Philadelphia Inquirer, which remains one of Philadelphia's most prominent newspapers.

Reference

• The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family behind The New York Times, Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones, Little, Brown and Company, 1999.

External links

• Obituary, NY Times, April 9, 1935, Adolph S. Ochs Dead at 77; Publisher of Times Since 1896
• Jewish Virtual Library - Adolph Ochs
• Tennessee Encyclopedia article

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