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 in 1858 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. His father, however, enlisted in the Union army, causing a strain on his home life. 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 drastically.

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.

Looking towards the Times Building, 1 Times Square

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.

Ochs died on April 8, 1935 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the birth place of his newspaper career. 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' death.

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 financial straits 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 of the Chattanooga Dispatch 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." His tactics involved rejecting the yellow journalism and sensationalism that was typical of his contemporaries, such as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, and report news only that is true and verified. When he acquired the paper, it had less than ten thousand readers. From 1896 to 1935 he raised the daily circulation enormously, and by the 1920s, the newspaper had nearly eight hundred thousand readers. He utilized new technology to circulate the paper to many areas outside of New York, and the paper was responsible for the first on the spot wireless transmission of a naval battle, depecting a skirmish during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. 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 fifty thousand dollars annually for ten years toward the cost of producing the Dictionary of American Biography, a book featuring the biographies of prominent Americans. He established Current History Magazine in 1914, a journal originally created to provide coverage of World War 1. From 1900 until his death, he was a director for the Associated Press.

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.

Legacy

The most important enterprise of Ochs' life was his recreation of the New York Times. Ochs business tactics of steering away from sensationalist news and lowering the price of the paper, as well as relying on the rise of technology, gave a new breath of life to the ailing paper. To this day, the descendants of Ochs still maintain control over the paper, and it has become a pre-eminent American daily paper with a daily circulation of well over one million. It has won ninety-four Pulitzer Prizes, including a record of seven in 2002 alone.

His expertise also helped the Chattanooga Times in Tennessee emerge out of its financial deficit and become a well circulated paper. Today, it is merged under the name Chatanooga Times Free Press and remains in circulation. He also owned newspapers in Philadelphia which today have become part of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a reputable newspaper with a long and rich history. His influence also helped establish Current History Magazine, which is still published today, and the Dictionary of American Biography.

Major Works

• Ochs took over The Chattanooga Times when the paper was failing. He turned it around and made it one of the most reputable newspapers in the South. In the late 1990s, the paper merged with the Chattanooga Free Press to make the Chattanooga Times Free Press which still remains in circulation today.

• Ochs bought the New York Times and turned its financial losses into profits. Times Square was named after the newspaper in 1904, and the paper remains in control of his family today. It is one of the most well recognized newspapers in the world and has won many awards in journalism, including Pulitzer Prizes.

• Ochs financed the creation of the Dictionary of American Biography, which was created between 1928 and 1936.

• Current History Magazine was founded by Ochs and the New York Times originally to educate the population on World War 1. In modern times, it seeks to educate its readers on global issues and conflicts.

Reference

• Tifft, Susan. Jones, Alex. 1999. The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family behind The New York Times. Diane Pub Co. ISBN 978-0756787127.

• Johnson, Gerald W. 1946. Honorable Titan: A Biographical Study of Adolph S. Ochs. Harper and Brothers. ISBN 978-0837138367.

• Talese, Gay. 2007. The Kingdom and the Power: Behind the Scenes at The New York Times: The Institution That Influences the World. Random House Trade Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0812977684.

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

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Adolph_Ochs  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Adolph Ochs"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.