Public Enemy o Arthur Gregg Sulzberger ’03, publisher of the “failing New York Times,” was once uncertain Nhe wanted to be a journalist at all. But after years1 in the reporting trenches, he took over his family publication which—far from failing—has actually added positions in this era of massive publishing layoffs. A year into his new role, as President Trump dubs the Times an “enemy of the people,” Sulzberger talks about the future of the flagship newspaper.

By Julia M. Klein | Photographs by Tony Luong

20 brown alumni magazine july | august 2019 21 Sulzberger conducts one of his signature open Q&A meetings with the digital transition team.

fter graduating feature writing at Brown, urged him it for a far bigger audience: the New York scriber-based news organization—a innovative instincts. He may be one of Martin Baron, executive editor of with a degree in political science, Arthur to apply for a two-year internship at Times’s growing newsroom, an embat- shift in direction aimed at ensuring very few figures who have legitimacy the Washington Post, credits Sulzberger Gregg Sulzberger ’03, scion of the coun- her home paper, the Providence Journal. tled media industry, and even President that the paper will survive and thrive with both groups,” says Carolyn Ryan, with having “both a soul and a spine.” try’s most powerful newspaper family, Sulzberger recalls: “She made the best Donald Trump. After years of appren- (if not necessarily on paper) even as a Times assistant managing editor who, His soul “is very much on the journal- aturned to one of his greatest passions: pitch I had heard: ‘Look, you’re good ticeship at regional newspapers and newspapers around the country con- as metropolitan editor, was formerly istic side of things,” Baron says. “He ocean conservation. He traveled to the at this, you like it, and you should give the Times itself, Sulzberger took over tinue to founder. Sulzberger’s boss. Now a good friend, understands that the reason people are Galapagos Islands, in Ecuador, to help it a shot. If it turns out it’s not for you, as Times publisher Jan. 1, 2018. He has “A.G. is this bridge between the Ryan says that she has “watched him, drawn to the Times is the quality of the monitor the lobster catch and, inciden- then you’ll have answered a big ques- since made news by chiding Trump for generation that he started with at from the moment that he came in here, work, and that that’s absolutely central tally, to “lock in” his Spanish. tion that otherwise might hang over his “divisive” and “dangerous” media- these print papers and the generation look around and soak up the place, the to the business proposition as well.” While he was there, Tracy Breton, a you in your life.’ ” baiting rhetoric. Closer to home, he is that is more and more inhabiting our people, and what needed to change. The spine, he says, has been evident in Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative Sulzberger answered the question leading the Times’s efforts to become newsroom now and will propel us for- And he has thrown himself into that Sulzberger’s “cool-headed” but “firm” PETER MATHER journalist who’d taught him advanced for himself. At 38, he is now answering an increasingly digitally-focused, sub- MUSEUM MEMORIAL HOLOCAUST U.S. ward with digital skills, digital savvy, adventure.” encounters with the President. Baron

22 brown alumni magazine Portrait by Jesse Burke july | august 2019 23 “Arthur always knew himself, knew who he was, in a really stubborn kind of way. When he was a kid, it would manifest itself in weird ways: ‘You guys like pizza; I think pizza’s gross.’”

notes approvingly that Sulzberger also in 1896 bought what was then (in reali- Bump”—intense interest in coverage of “understands the need for journalists ty, rather than presidential rhetoric) the the administration’s scandals, outrag- to adapt to the new ways that people failing New York Times; the great-grand- es, internecine quarrels, and more. But are consuming information—not just son of Arthur Hays Sulzberger (who Sulzberger sees the company’s game adapt to it, but actually embrace it.” married Ochs’s daughter, Iphigene, plan as far broader. and thus became Times publisher); the “Not everything is politics—we ven as a child, family grandson of Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sul- cover the world,” he says. “We’re doing members say, Sulz - zberger, publisher from 1963-92; and more long-form investigative reporting berger was disinclined the son of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. than we have at any point in our history. to follow the crowd. (“Pinch” to detractors, or more fondly, Why is it that, as we became more digi- “Arthur always knew “AOS”), who succeeded his father as tal, we went back to that old-fashioned himself, knew who he publisher in 1992 and saw it through model, too? It’s because our strategy has was, in a really stub - the first upheavals of the Internet age. become really clear inside the company: born kind of way,” says Sam Dolnick, an Sulzberger—“A.G.” to his col - Once you say you’re a ‘subscription-first’ assistant managing editor overseeing leagues, “Arthur” to his intimates— company, what you’re actually saying enew projects at the Times, and one of two was the heir apparent, though he would is that you need to make something so cousins who competed with Sulzberger face competition from other talent- good that it’s worth paying for in the for the publisher job. ed fifth-generation members of the presence of free alternatives.” “He was eccentric as a kid for sure,” Ochs-Sulzberger clan. But he was far In recent years, plummeting print Dolnick remembers. “He would only from certain that he wanted the pub- advertising and circulation have caused eat white rice, yogurt. There was a sense lisher’s mantle—uncertain at first that most newspapers to slash their staffs of not being swayed by peer pressure, he even wanted to be a journalist. “It just and narrow their editorial ambitions. the herd. He couldn’t care less. And it felt like too predictable a path,” he says in The overextended Times company suf - would manifest itself in weird ways: the course of a nearly two-hour-long in- fered its own financial setbacks, seri- ‘You guys like pizza; I think pizza’s terview at the Times’s Renzo Piano glass ous enough that some commentators gross. I’m not going to the pizza party.’ skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. predicted bankruptcy. In response, You can see strains of that as an adult in says Eileen Murphy, the Times’s senior much more meaningful ways.” ulzberger was drawn to vice president of corporate communica- David Perpich, Sulzberger’s other politics—campaign work tions, “the strategy was to pare the com- cousin-competitor—he now heads the rather than political office, pany down to its core.” After selling off company’s product-rating site, Wire- he says. An avid outdoors- many of its assets, including nine local cutter, and sits on the Times’s board of man, he also contemplat- TV stations, the Boston Globe, and other directors—says he always admired Sul- ed a career as an environ- regional newspapers, and erecting a zberger’s “ability to read between the mentalist. He regularly metered paywall for its digital content lines.” Though Sulzberger was some- organizes whitewater rafting trips, and in 2011, it maintains its heftiest-ever thing of an introvert, Perpich says, “he he and his bride, the radio producer and newsroom of 1,600 employees, report- always was the leader of the pack of his sreporter Molly Messick ’03, led a five-mile ing from more than 160 countries. The friends.” night hike through muddy woods to the large globe in a corner of Sulzberger’s Dolnick says he and Perpich “were family home in New Paltz, N.Y., follow- office no doubt comes in handy. utterly confident [Sulzberger] would ing their wedding reception last fall. “The trajectory of the business has thrive in this job.” Still, “it’s been ex- Snapshots of Sulzberger’s wife and been really good,” Sulzberger says, traordinary to see him step into this role, infant daughter, his maternal grand- though the majority of revenues still de- and how quickly he has done it —that in mother’s abandoned home in Topeka, rive from print. The 2018 Annual Report his first year, he’s going toe to toe with Kansas, and favorite landscapes adorn shows the Times’s digital revenues climb- the president in the Oval Office, uphold- a bulletin board in his unprepossess- ing to $709 million (on pace to exceed the ing the values of the First Amendment ing office. An antique reading table company’s $800 million goal for 2020), and the free press in a way that makes displays issues of the print newspaper, with subscriptions, combined print and the entire industry beam with pride.” and Sulzberger proudly points out the digital, topping 4.3 million. The goal for None of this was inevitable, though range of subjects and datelines on the 2025 is 10 million subscribers. to an outsider it might have appeared so. front page. Industry analysts credit re- A few days after the interview, the pa- Sulzberger was, after all, the great- cent digital subscription gains at the per added to its historic trove of Pulitzer great-grandson of Adolph S. Ochs, the Times, the Washington Post, and other prizes with awards for editorial writing

son of German Jewish immigrants, who news organizations to the “Trump and explanatory journalism. The latter MINTON JEFF

24 brown alumni magazine july | august 2019 25 “Six months in as a journalist you’re just shocked by the amount of moral compromise that you see in politics, and six months into politics, you’re shocked by how little the journalists actually know.”

prospect of a new beat covering Oregon also sees what’s happening offstage.” “made it clear that he wanted the news- state government. But word of his pro- Dolnick, who had been a New Delhi– room to think of new paid products motion spurred an email from then– based foreign correspondent for the that would bring in extra revenue,” says managing editor Jill Abramson recruit- Associated Press, was hired a few Abramson, and she asked Sulzberger to ing him to the Times. Sulzberger says he months after Sulzberger, in 2009, and head the committee charged with that had “mixed feelings,” wanting “to suc- the cousins “developed a real friendship task. The assignment was a natural step ceed on my own terms” and not “jump around the struggles of being young re- in Sulzberger’s grooming process, she into an environment where I might not porters in this incredibly intimidating says, but “he had his terms.” He want- be ready.” Over drinks in New York, he place,” Sulzberger says. ed to pick his team (he had “exquisite sought advice from Stephen Engelberg, In 2010, the publisher’s son relocat- taste,” she says) and free its members a former Times investigative editor and ed to Kansas City to cover the Midwest from other work. Several weeks later, he asked “to switch the mission away from [new] products to focus on the core” of the or- ganization, and, again, Abramson said yes. “But I don’t think I recognized that it was also opening a bit of a Pandora’s box,” she says. “I didn’t think it was go- ing to be a report card on how we were doing digitally.” In March 2014, Sulzberger stunned Abramson and others by delivering a searing indictment of the company’s lack of digital progress. “There was a boldness to that and a real urgent ener- prize recognized an 18-month project day people live their everyday lives.” about the women’s issue, he would per- gy that ended up sparking real change,” that detailed a Trump family history of The course was graded “satisfactory/ sonally ruin his career in journalism for says Ryan. tax dodges that the story unambiguous- no credit,” but Breton gave letter grades life,” Young says. “[The man] had no idea Jon Galinsky, now the newsroom ly labeled “outright fraud.” for assignments. And on the one occa- who he was. That was the kind of thing strategy manager, worked closely with “When I started as a journalist, I had sion Sulzberger received less than an A, Arthur would never have made a point of Sulzberger on what came to be known this revelation that six months or a year “he immediately asked me whether it telling anyone. He did share [the threat] as the “innovation report.” Galinsky into either politics or journalism, you would be OK to do a rewrite,” she says. with us. We all got a big laugh out of recalls: “There were a lot of debates at would never, ever consider going into He passed up senior week activities that, and ran the story.” that time within the innovation team. the other,” Sulzberger says. “Because to re-report the story. “Arthur doesn’t After the internship, in 2006, Sul- We went through many, many drafts, six months in as a journalist you’re just want to do anything in a less than stellar zberger was offered a job at the Journal and A.G. spent a lot of really long nights shocked by the amount of moral com- way—that’s just the way he is, whether but moved instead to the Oregonian, Oregonian managing editor who had for the Times (as a longtime vegetari - typing stuff up and having us tear it promise that you see in politics, and six it’s kayaking or journalism,” she says. in Portland, to report on county gov- helped found the investigative site Pro- an, he dubbed it a “Mecca of meat” in apart, and going back to the drawing months into politics, you’re shocked by ernment and “see a bit more of the Publica. As Sulzberger recalls the con- a first-person piece). “Reporting out board and starting over again. The way how little the journalists actually know.” t the Journal, Sulzberg- country.” Approaching his beat with versation, Engelberg reassured him of of Kansas City was the most fun I ever that he led that team was a really col- At Brown, Sulzberger worked briefly er covered the town investigative zeal, he uncovered “a his talents and said he would be judged had,” he says. Two years later, he re- laborative process, where everyone had on the Brown Daily Herald, but Breton’s of Narragansett, R.I., government … in a cycle of pretty pro- on his work, not his name. turned to New York to gain supervisory something to contribute.” class was more pivotal to his eventual and became hooked found dysfunction” and a sheriff mired Sulzberger thrived at the Times, re- experience as an assistant metropolitan Sounding what Galinsky calls “an career choice. “It was smart, rigorous. It on reporting. “He in scandals that included having lied porting initially for the city desk. “He’s editor, accomplishing that transition, alarm bell,” the report declared: “The demanded real work that could not be had perfect news in- about an affair with the governor’s wife. very observant, very astute. You some- Ryan says, “gracefully and successfully.” New York Times is winning at journal- shortcutted with intelligence and a so- stincts. He just knew Les Zaitz, who shared bylines with him times don’t realize [that] because he can In the fall of 2013, another opportu- ism…. At the same time, we are falling phisticated turn of phrase,” he recalls. when he had a good story,” says Carol J. on the sheriff stories and now publish- be a little bit understated,” says Ryan, nity presented itself, and it would end behind in a second critical area: the art Breton, who remains a close friend, Young, the retired deputy executive edi- es and edits a rural weekly, remembers: recalling an offbeat story he wrote on up changing both his trajectory and the and science of getting our journalism remembers Sulzberger as “very am- ator. She remembers an anniversary piece “Arthur was relentless. He would spend two courthouse spectators at the fraud newspaper’s. to readers.” It called for more news- bivalent about a career in journalism,” on the polio epidemic and a story on the hours trying to track down one person trial of the socialite Brooke Astor’s Again, the catalyst was Abramson, business collaboration in product devel- but also “a very good reporter, a very local Lions Club’s refusal to admit wom- who could give us one detail.” The sher- son, Anthony Marshall. “It’s sort of who in 2011 became the first female opment, more emphasis on social media elegant writer, very detail-oriented,” as en as members. “One of the local power iff ultimately resigned. emblematic of the way he observes the executive editor in the paper’s histo - promotion, and more digital creativity. GREG KAHN GREG well as “very curious about how every- brokers threatened him that if he talked Sulzberger says he was excited by the (2) KRAYCHYK/HULU GEORGE world: He can see center stage, but he ry. Mark Thompson, the Times’s CEO, Abramson laments that the report 26 brown alumni magazine Photograph by David delPoio Photograph by Douglas Adesko july | august 2019 27 For Sulzberger to jumpstart digital transformation at the Times entails more than a little irony: Schooled in print, he had virtually no social media presence. He tweeted exactly twice before giving up on Twitter.

didn’t credit her accomplishment in s this OK to steal?” senior editor for mobile, and Perpich, merging print and digital operations. It is 1:30 p.m. on a cool a Harvard M.B.A. who had joined the Her recent book, Merchants of Truth: The April day, and the pub - company in 2010 to help design the pay- Business of News and the Fight for Facts, calls lisher has just emerged wall—was underway. it “an epic defeat,” even a betrayal. In from a Q&A with the “We joked that we feel very lucky,” mid-May 2014, she was fired by Sulzberg- company’s product and says Perpich, a first cousin who spent er’s father—not, it seems, for digital fail- design team. Perched on childhood Christmases and family vaca- ures, but because of what the Times called a chair, in his informal uniform of a tions with Sulzberger and used to catch “management issues” that had eroded “sky-blue shirt, dark grey sweater and frogs with him in their grandfather’s her ability to run the paper. (Abramson blue jeans,i he has spent an hour culti- pond and swimming pool. “We all have has suggested that conflict over her com- vating good will, explaining company similar values, but very different skill pensation and other disputes also played strategy, and even earning a laugh or sets. So we knew, however this shook out, a role.) Managing editor Dean Baquet, an two. Outside the meeting, he encoun- there was a role for each of us to play.” Abramson ally turned critic, succeeded ters an enticing buffet. In the rush of In October 2016, a seven-person se- her, becoming the Times’s first African the day, he hasn’t yet had time to eat lection committee (composed of family American executive editor. his takeout sushi lunch. So the man members, senior managers, and inde- Galinsky says the innovation report whose family controls the company pendent board members) named Sul- was “a big inflection point for the insti- asks a passing employee for permission zberger deputy publisher, marking an tution.” But it was also critical for Sulz- to purloin a cookie. end to the cousins’ polite, G-rated ver- berger himself. Permission is, rather unsurprising- sion of Game of Thrones. By prior mutu - It demonstrated, he says, “that with- ly, granted. al arrangement, the three went out for out meaningful change, the future of “That kind of encapsulates his per- drinks afterwards. this place that I believe plays an essen- sonality and his approach to the job “I looked a little shell-shocked,” Sul- tial role in society was in real question. in a nutshell. He doesn’t hold himself zberger says. “My head was spinning. And once I realized that, and once I re- above other people,” says Galinsky. “In I’m sure their heads were spinning. nick project is a TV show, The Weekly, “What I think has grown more sub- pendence—that believes it was put on alized that the leadership of the compa- all the roles that he’s had here, despite They ordered a round, and then Sam highlighting Times reporting, which stantial … is the need to have someone the face of the earth to follow the truth ny and the newsroom needed help fix- being who he is, he just comports him- turned to me and said, ‘Let’s help you premiered June 2 on FX (and whose epi- who’s really taking a long view of this wherever it leads and to report without ing this, the notion that I would spend self like any other member of the staff.” plan tomorrow.’ And the first thing he sodes also will stream on Hulu). institution,” he tells the product and de- fear or favor. Think about those phras- my time writing articles started to feel Everyone who discusses Sulzberger said was, ‘Let’s go to the Page One meet- Sulzberger credits Perpich as “the sign team. He cites his father’s decision es that circle around this building,” he indulgent.” He was, he says, “uniquely notes his lack of ostentation. So intense ing, and we’re going to sit on either side principal architect of huge swaths of the “to preserve our investment in news- says, “and think about the public per- placed to help solve some of the prob- is his desire for privacy that he declined of you, and before you say anything, company’s strategy”—the move from room and to increase our investment ception right now. lems I had identified”—an acceptance, to have his recent wedding announced we’re going to stand up and explain an advertising-dependent to “subscrip- in product, technology, and design in a “A majority of Republicans now say finally, of the destiny he had regarded in the paper of record. That he was the why you were the better pick.’ ” tion-first” model, “a really profound and period in which we were rapidly slash- that the news media is the enemy of the with so much ambivalence. one to jumpstart digital transformation important moment in the history of the ing our overall budget and facing real fi- people. They’d rather get their news Sulzberger says Abramson had at the Times entails more than a little ince then, Sulzberger place.” In addition to the paywall, Per- nancial peril.” It was a long bet, he says, directly from the president. And a ma- asked him to prepare only eight print irony: Schooled in print, he had virtu- notes, Dolnick has cre - pich developed the subscription-based that is paying off. “So I think of myself as jority say they believe the government copies of the report. But the day after ally no social media presence. He never ated The Daily—“now Cooking and Crossword apps, which a voice for the longterm, and as someone should be allowed to shut down organi- her firing, a version leaked to BuzzFeed, joined Facebook and tweeted exactly America’s most down- Sulzberger says “show that we’re not just who spends a lot of time thinking about zations that report ‘fake news,’ which one of the Times’s digital competitors, twice before giving up on Twitter. (The loaded podcast,” with for news—we are for a wide range of pur- our long-term assets: our brand, trust of is in the eye of the beholder. That’s so and was posted online. day of the April interview, he was finish- “more listeners every day poses to help people live their best lives.” readers, how people engage with us, and troubling not just for this institution, “We had an emergency innovation ing a piece for the Times’s just-launched than our front page ever Sulzberger’s own role is evolving, our culture.” and not just for the industry of journal- committee meeting after the report Privacy Project, examining the tradeoffs had readers.” On Feb. 1, The Daily aired too. The New York Times publisher used Increasing diversity—of both em- ism,” Sulzberger says, “but for the soci- leaked, where we all just got in a room, of the digital age.) an episode titled, “The President and to spend considerable time navigat- ployees and readers—is one priority, ety we live in.” including A.G., and said, ‘Holy shit, are But, after holding Q&As around the sthe Publisher.” It braided Sulzberger’s ing the divide between the news and Sulzberger says. But his greatest worry, we all going to get fired?’ ” Galinsky re- newspaper to explain the innovation account of his two Oval Office visits, business sides of the company, making he says, is “the decline of trust in jour- Julia M. Klein, a former staff writer for the calls. “The Times was a different place at report, Sulzberger accepted the oppor- on July 20, 2018, and Jan. 31 of this year, sure company goals were in sync. While nalism, and particularly the polariza- Philadelphia Inquirer and contributing that point. We didn’t honestly air criti- tunity to fulfill one of its recommenda- with audio of him telling the Presi- some separation remains in place to tion of trust,” with Republicans far less editor at Columbia Journalism Review, cism about ourselves.” But the panic sub- tions by heading a newly created news- dent directly that the phrases “fake guard against conflicts of interest, Sul- likely than Democrats to have faith in has written for the New York Times, Wall sided, and Galinsky says: “It’s good that room strategy team. By then, what he news” and “enemy of the people” had zberger says, increased coordination, the media. Street Journal, Washington Post, Moth- it leaked in the end. It made us account- calls “the process”—the competition damaged journalists and press free- particularly in product development, “That is really troubling for an in- er Jones, the Nation, and other publica- able to do the things that were in there.” with Dolnick, who had been named dom around the world. Another Dol- has become the rule. stitution that prides itself on its inde- tions. Follow her on Twitter @JuliaMKlein.

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