Which family has published The New York Times since Adolph Ochs acquired it in 1896?

The Ochs-Sulzberger family has published The New York Times since Adolph Ochs acquired the newspaper in 1896. Ochs purchased the financially troubled paper and developed it into a major national newspaper through editorial investment and broader circulation.

After Ochs died in 1935, his son-in-law Arthur Hays Sulzberger succeeded him as publisher. The Sulzberger branch continued the family connection, and the publisher role later passed through several generations of the family.

The New York Times Company became a publicly traded corporation in 1967, but the Ochs-Sulzberger family has retained significant voting control through a special class of stock. This structure is why the newspaper is often described as family-controlled rather than privately owned in the ordinary sense.

A common mix-up is identifying the family simply as “Sulzberger.” The full label recognizes the Ochs acquisition and the later Sulzberger succession. The newspaper itself was founded in 1851, decades before Ochs bought it.