It Was Times to Go

(Monty)

Or

All the Obits that Are Fit to Print

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, former publisher of the New York Times, is once again leading the way for the paper as it lurches toward the inexorable demise of print, succumbing to a long illness at the age of 86. Sulzberger managed to build both sides of the empire, greatly enhancing the profitability of the paper while maintaining and enhancing its editorial independence. The New York Times won 31 Pulitzer Prizes during his three-decade reign, while more importantly winning the New York Times vs. Sullivan libel case, which shielded the press from libel lawsuits by public officials unless they could prove actual malice. The former WWII Marine also personally authorized publishing the Pentagon Papers, a series of classified reports on the Vietnam War, a decision upheld by The Supreme Court in another landmark First Amendment case. By the time he left the paper in 1992, annual revenues of the Times' corporate parent had risen to $1.7 billion.