New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. hands reins to son

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has served as the New York Time’s publisher since 1992. He joined the company in 1978 as a correspondent in its Washington bureau. During his tenure as publisher, he has overseen the New York Times’s transformation into a digital-first news organization and implemented its pay wall model.

“It has been an extraordinary honor to serve as publisher of The New York Times and I will step down at the end of the year prouder than I have ever been of the strength, independence and integrity of this institution. My colleagues - the women and men who have devoted themselves to producing and distributing the world’s best journalism – have made my job so fulfilling and I am forever in their debt,” he said in a statement.

As deputy publisher, A.G. Sulzberger has played a large part in pushing the New York Times into the digital age. He was the principal author of its 2014 Innovation Report, which detailed how the publisher could keep pace with an audience that increasingly wants to consume news digitally.

“Arthur is the only publisher of his generation who took over a great news organization and left it better than he found it. The fortunate position The Times enjoys today was not a foregone conclusion; it is a direct result of the bold bets Arthur made, from taking the paper national and then international, to embracing the Internet, to insisting that great journalism is worth paying for,” said A.G. Sulzberger in a statement. “Original, independent, deeply-reported journalism is the fuel that powers a healthy and engaged society. My focus as publisher will be on ensuring the continued journalistic excellence and commercial success of The Times through a period of transformation for the news industry.”

Since last year’s election, the New York Times has seen a surge in digital subscriptions. Its digital subscriber count jumped to nearly 2.5 million in the third quarter of 2017, a year-over-year increase of 59%.