The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.
◆Hot Take· 1
◆Hot Take1:26:30
The Technology Wave the Times Missed Before the Internet
The hosts argue that the Times's consequential media error was not simply mishandling the early web but failing to build a meaningful cable-news business. While the Times bought scattered television assets and a stake in the Popcorn Channel, Rupert Murdoch built Fox News into a larger and dramatically more profitable operation.
The Times acquired broadcast stations but failed to establish a major cable-news network.
Fox News paid cable systems for carriage and favorable placement during its launch.
Fox News surpassed CNN by 2002 and remained the leading US television news network for years.
The hosts estimate Fox's cable segment generated roughly $5.4 billion in revenue and $2.5 billion in EBITDA in 2019.
“Cable was the internet before the internet. That's where the money was.”
“The huge mistake they make is they don't get into cable though.”
How the Penny-Paper Boom Created the New York Times
Population growth, rising literacy, urbanization, cheaper printing, and demand for war news drove a dramatic expansion in American newspapers. Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones entered this market in 1851 with the New-York Daily Times, reaching 10,000 copies within two weeks.
The number of US newspapers grew from 200 in 1800 to 3,000 in 1860.
Advances in printing reduced production costs and enabled one-cent papers.
Raymond supplied the journalistic and political leadership while Jones supplied capital.
The paper reached 26,000 copies during its first year.
“In the year 1800, there were 200 newspapers in the US, and in the year 1860, there were 3,000 newspapers in the U.S.”
“It was like uh it was like the substacks of 1851. Everybody was starting a newspaper.”
#newspapers#media-history#founding#distribution
✶Explainer1:02:00
The Family Trust Designed to Keep the Times Independent
The Ochs-Sulzberger family placed its controlling shares into trusts intended to preserve both family control and editorial independence. The governing language restricts a sale unless trustees unanimously conclude that the newspaper's public-service mission would be better protected under new ownership.
The family retained voting control through Class B shares.
Trustees are generally directed not to sell, distribute, or convert those shares.
A change of control requires a unanimous determination by the trustees.
The trust's stated objective centers on editorial independence, integrity, and public welfare.
“the primary objective of the trust which is to maintain the editorial independence and integrity of the New York Times and to continue it as…”
“So he sets this up so that all of his descendants in perpetuity the only way they can maintain the wealth associated with the Times…”
The Innovation Report That Rewired the Times for Digital
A.G. Sulzberger's 2014 Innovation Report began as a search for new products but became an investigation into how the entire organization needed to change. It argued that publishing was the beginning—not the end—of a journalist's responsibility and that product, technology, marketing, growth, and distribution expertise had to become part of the newsroom's work.
The report drew on interviews across the Times and with competing organizations.
The team concluded that launching one more product would not solve the institutional problem.
Journalists needed to consider audience and distribution throughout production.
The Times sought digital growth without abandoning its editorial standards.
Cooking, Crosswords, and The Daily later became major digital successes.
“We need to completely change the way the New York Times works.”
“The New York Times is winning at journalism. At the same time, we are falling behind in a second critical area, the art and science…”
The Times's metered paywall initially produced slow subscriber growth and a major traffic decline, but its economics improved as digital adoption accelerated. The Trump presidency, the coronavirus pandemic, and a relentless news cycle then produced record subscriber gains, while digital products diversified the company's recurring revenue.
The 2011 paywall initially allowed 20 free articles each month.
Traffic reportedly fell from about 160 million monthly visitors to 80 million between 2011 and 2013.
It took four and a half years to reach the first million digital subscribers but only another year and a half to reach two million.
Digital revenue eventually surpassed print revenue.
By the episode's publication, the Times reported approximately 7.5 million total subscribers.
“Digital revenue surpasses print revenue for the first time ever.”
“They have more digital subscribers than the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the 250 local Gannett papers combined.”
Why the Times Has Newspaper Costs but Software Economics
The hosts argue that the Times's transition from print to digital fundamentally changes its cost structure. Digital subscriptions allow reporting expenses to be spread across millions of readers, while the Times's unusually strong brand makes identical reporting more valuable under its masthead than elsewhere.
Print production and delivery costs rise with circulation.
Digital distribution adds subscribers with minimal incremental cost.
Scale supports a larger newsroom and higher journalist salaries.
The Times's brand materially changes readers' willingness to trust and pay for reporting.
The hosts identify scale economies and branding as its clearest strategic powers.
“The New York Times has incredible brand power.”
“There could be the exact same word-for-word article uh in different places and it would be valued differently.”
The Times Founder Who Also Co-Founded the Republican Party
Henry Raymond simultaneously led the Times and helped establish the Republican Party around an abolitionist platform. His overlapping roles as publisher, managing editor, party leader, and congressman reveal how closely nineteenth-century journalism and politics were intertwined.
Raymond was one of five founding members of the Republican Party.
He served as the second chair of the Republican National Committee.
He helped advance Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign.
He later served in Congress while continuing to publish and edit the Times.
“Literally, he's known as the godfather of the Republican Party, is also the founder of the New York Times.”
“He's a member of the House of Representatives, all still while publishing the Times and serving as the managing editor, like writing all the editorials.”
When the Times Defended Its Office with Gatling Guns
During New York City's 1863 draft riots, a mob targeted newspapers associated with Lincoln and the Republican Party. Raymond obtained rifles and Gatling guns from the War Department, armed his staff, and personally led the defense of the Times building without ultimately firing a shot.
The draft riots erupted after the Union government instituted conscription.
Pro-Lincoln newspapers became targets of the mobs.
Raymond secured weapons through his political connections.
The Times building survived, while the Tribune's building was stormed.
“He hands out rifles to the whole staff. He's manning one of the Gatling guns himself, and he gives the order that if any of…”
“Uh nobody is no shots are actually fired, but they do successfully defend the building.”
#civil-war#draft-riots#henry-raymond#new-york
❝Story24:30
How Adolph Ochs Bought the Times Without His Own Money
After turning around the Chattanooga Times, Adolph Ochs pursued the bankrupt New York Times despite lacking sufficient personal capital. He assembled borrowed financing, secured a presidential endorsement, proposed seller-financed debt, and convinced the bankruptcy committee to back his turnaround plan.
Ochs began in newspapers as a delivery boy and printer's devil.
He previously acquired the Chattanooga Times with a $250 down payment and seller financing.
A Chattanooga bank temporarily wired funds to make him appear financially credible in New York.
President Grover Cleveland supplied a letter endorsing Ochs.
Ochs used borrowed money and approximately $600,000 in seller debt to acquire the Times.
“The yokel from Tennessee had accomplished the impossible. He had bought the New York Times using none of his own money.”
“He walks in there with a letter of endorsement from the president of the United States.”
Ochs repositioned the Times as a trustworthy alternative to sensationalist yellow journalism and cut its price from three cents to one. The combination attracted readers who wanted serious news at a mass-market price, rapidly restoring circulation and profitability.
Hearst and Pulitzer dominated with sensationalist three-cent papers.
Ochs emphasized impartial reporting and adopted “All the news that's fit to print.”
He cut the Times's price from three cents to one despite needing profitability.
Circulation rose from roughly 9,000 before the turnaround to more than 100,000 by 1901.
By the 1920s, circulation exceeded three-quarters of a million.
“So the plan is basically to be really boring and really cheap.”
“He cuts the price from three cents down to one cent, which would seem crazy. Like you're trying to make more money. Why would you…”
#pricing#turnaround#positioning#circulation
❝Story1:08:00
The Times Confronts Its Failure to Cover the Holocaust
Despite its strong wartime reporting, the Times minimized and obscured the Nazi extermination of European Jews. The hosts connect this failure to the Sulzberger family's fear that the paper would be perceived as a Jewish institution, and they highlight the Times's later public reckoning with that decision.
The Times invested heavily in World War II reporting while competitors preserved advertising space.
Its leadership feared anti-Semitic backlash and accusations of parochial bias.
Reports sometimes described murdered Jews merely as Europeans.
Former executive editor Max Frankel later characterized the omission as a profound institutional failure.
“The Holocaust was in contrast to being the foremost war reporters in America during World War II, the Times basically ignored the Holocaust.”
“then there was failure none greater than the staggering, staining failure of the New York Times to depict Hitler's methodical extermination of the Jews of…”
How Bad Acquisitions and Debt Pushed the Times to the Brink
During the 1990s and 2000s, the Times pursued an unfocused collection of newspapers, magazines, sports interests, websites, and broadcast assets while borrowing to repurchase shares. When the financial crisis crushed advertising and circulation, the company accepted costly financing from Carlos Slim, suspended its dividend, sold assets, and completed a sale-leaseback of its new headquarters.
The company bought the Boston Globe for $1.1 billion and About.com for $410 million.
It accumulated stakes in the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, and other unrelated assets.
The Times repurchased nearly $3 billion of stock using debt.
Carlos Slim provided $250 million at a 14% interest rate plus warrants.
Asset sales ultimately generated about $1 billion for debt reduction.
“Throughout the 90s and 2000s, they bought back almost three billion dollars of stock that they financed with debt.”
“Over the course of the next two years, you know, they would lose 25% of their revenue in two years.”
Why Internet Media Rewards Giants and Tiny Specialists
The episode frames internet media as a barbell market: a few scaled institutions can afford premium global reporting, while narrowly focused creators can survive with extremely low costs. Mid-sized publishers struggle because they possess neither the scale advantages of the Times nor the lean economics of independent specialists.
Internet distribution expands addressable audiences beyond geography.
Scaled publishers can amortize content costs across millions of subscribers.
Small niche publishers can operate with minimal overhead.
Organizations in the middle lack either sufficient scale or sufficiently low costs.
The Times survived by choosing to become the scale player.
“you have this distribution with a very, very small amount of scale players and a very long tail of niche players with incredibly low cost…”
“if you're gonna publish on the internet, you need to escape to one side or the other.”