The New York Times was first started in 1851. As most of us know the New York Times to be a huge news outlet it wasn't always like that. When the Times first came out Henry Raymond wanted to be in competition with the big dog new papers, especially during the Civil War. Their first order of business was to come out with a Sunday paper during the Civil War with new updates. No other news firm was doing this at the time. This helped them get some recognition, but not what put them on the grid. After the Civil War, The New York Times decided to put in more effort to stand out. They went by the rule "all the news that's fit to print". This was a huge success at first. It was seen as an early success because the paper set a pattern to appeal to a cultured, intellectual readership instead of a mass audience. This was a new type of news delivery. The bigger New York papers were reporting mostly on war and politics. The New York Times wanted to stand out from them. They started things like the Sunday Magazine section, News of the Day and focused on International News. As time went on they started to struggle but didn't stop. Readers were used to yellow journalism which consisted of exaggerated writing that veered toward a certain narrative. This is exactly what The Times wanted to stay away from. Straying readers away from yellow journalism was a struggle. Their individuality started to become a success, especially when impacting publications came out.
Since the birth of The New York Times, they have had multiple publications that have rocked readers. One of the first impactful publications was The New York Times coverage of the Titanic. The Times came out with the most prestigious and accurate information on the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The Times was able to provide information such as the exact location the ship sank, the correct time stamps as to when the Titanic called in for distress, and when it went down. This information was far more advanced compared to the competitors. The Times also had impeccable publications in the World Wars. The Times caught the eyes of people with Big headlines about the Wars. The Times also were selling their papers for two cents. This would equal around 48 cents in 2015. This helped the times out because they had big interesting Headlines and cheaper paper.
In 1971 The New York Times was involved in a huge scandal involving the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers was the name given to a top-secret Department of Defense study of U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. A man by the name of Daniel Ellsberg worked on the papers as a strategic analyst. He soon believed that the war in Vietnam was unwinable
and the information in the papers should be available to Americans. Ellsberg tried to reach out to members of congress and was ignored. He then gave portions of the papers to reporter Neil Sheehan who worked for the Times. Starting June 13, 1971, The New York Times published papers with information in the Pentagon Papers. After the third paper was published the Times had a temporary restraining order from publishing any more information. The case New York Times Co. V. The United States was in session. The Washington Post joined the Times in fighting for the right to publish viable information for the people of the United States. On June 30th The U.S. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the publications were justified under the First Amendment. This is one of the most important cases of freedom of the press that the American people followed. The Times received great recognition from this case.
The New York Times started off small with little to no hope. They didn't believe they could compete with big New York papers. Throughout time they were able to create journalism landmarks and history. The New York Times is still killing it today bringing Americans news from every aspect.
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