Arthur Ochs Sulzberger ’45
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rthur Ochs Sulzberger ’45, an iconic newspaper publisher who championed freedom of the press and transformed the state of newspaper publishing in the 20th century, died in his home in Southampton, N.Y., on September 29, 2012.
creating separate sections for metropolitan and business news, and introducing new sections oriented towards consumers. It was a gamble, made during another financially difficult period; however, it was instantly successful and widely imitated.
“Punch” attended Loomis for two years before enlisting in the U.S. Marines in 1944 as a 17-year-old. Trained as a radioman, Punch went through the Leyte and Luzon campaigns in the Philippines and then landed in Japan as a jeep driver at General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters. He was discharged in 1946 as a corporal. Recalled to active duty five years later for the Korean War, he served as a public information officer in Korea before being transferred to Washington. By the time that he returned to civilian life in December of 1952, he had been promoted to captain.
Over the next two decades, a billion-dollar investment in new printing facilities made still more innovations possible, among them a national edition, special regional editions, and the daily use of color photographs and graphics.
Between military tours, Punch earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Columbia University. Punch’s family has owned The New York Times Company since 1896, when his grandfather, Adolph Ochs, purchased it. Having decided to go into the family business, Punch began his career with a one-year apprenticeship at The Milwaukee Journal. He then returned to New York and joined The New York Times in 1955, first on the foreign copy desk, gaining experience as a foreign correspondent in Great Britain, France, and Italy, followed by a stint as assistant to the publisher before rising to assistant treasurer of the company. Upon the death of his brother-in-law, Orvil E. Dryfoos, in 1963, Punch was appointed publisher of the paper as well as chairman and chief executive of The New York Times Company. When he took the reins of The Times, it was already respected and influential, often setting the national agenda. But it also had financial troubles — low revenues and high labor costs. During his tenure, The Times was transformed into a paper with a national scope, sold on both coasts, and was the heart of a diversified, multibillion-dollar
Photo: Courtesy of The New York Times
media operation that included newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations. By 1997, when Punch passed on the chairmanship to his son, The New York Times Company included 21 regional newspapers, nine magazines focusing on golf and other outdoor pastimes, eight television stations, two radio stations, a news service, a features syndicate, and The Boston Globe. On Punch’s watch, The New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize, American journalism’s highest award, 31 times. A staunch advocate of the importance of an independent press, Punch published, against the advice of his legal team, a secret government history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers. It was a defining moment for Punch and, in the view of many, his finest. When the Pentagon Papers were divulged in a series of articles in June of 1971, an embarrassed Nixon administration demanded the series be stopped immediately, citing national security concerns. The Times refused on First Amendment grounds and won its case in the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case ruling on press freedom. In the mid-1970s, Punch reshaped The Times, expanding the paper from two sections to four (SportsMonday, Science Times, Living, and Home and Weekend),
Punch left the publisher’s job in 1992 and the chief executive’s job in 1997, handing over both posts to his son Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. In 1997 Punch assumed the title of chairman emeritus, which he retained until his retirement in 2001. Punch was recipient of the 1992 Columbia Journalism Award, the highest honor of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Loomis Chaffee awarded him its Distinguished Service Award in 1981. He also held honorary doctor of humane letters degrees from Tufts University and Montclair State College. In presenting Punch with the Loomis Chaffee Distinguished Service Award, thenChairman of the Board Thomas S. Brush ’40 shared the following sentiment: “He is indeed a distinguished person in every respect, one that The Loomis Institute is proud to acknowledge as one of her sons.” In addition, Punch held honorary doctor of law degrees from Columbia University, the University of Scranton, Dartmouth College, and Bard College. Punch had been a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1968, serving as chairman from 1987 to 1998. He was a trustee of the Mount Sinai Medical Center and had served as life trustee at Columbia University since 1967. Punch was predeceased by his sister, Judy; his second wife, Carol; and his third wife, Allison. He is survived by his children, Arthur Jr., Karen, Cynthia, and Cathy; nine grandchildren; and his sisters, Marian and Ruth.
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