The Paper's Papers: A Reporter's Journeys Through the Archives of The New York Times - Hardcover

Richard F. Shepard

9780812924534: The Paper's Papers: A Reporter's Journeys Through the Archives of The New York Times

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0812924533 ISBN 13: 9780812924534

Publisher: Times Books / Random House, 1996

In August of 1896, an ambitious publisher from Chattanooga, Adolph Ochs, bought the almost bankrupt New York Times. Shepard, who has been there for half of those hundred years, draws on rarely-seen material from The Times's vast private archive to show how Adolph Ochs and his successors built the country's greatest paper. Illustrations.

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Review:

In this fascinating behind-the-scenes look at America's newspaper of record, Richard Shepard offers up an entertaining selection from 100 years of the internal papers of the The New York Times. Memos from publishers to editors reveal much tinkering from on high. One biting note demands a translation of a famous reporter's overwritten story. There is fun too as the paper's owners sometimes comically fight the elitism they perceive on the cultural pages: one publisher's note declares The Price is Right to be "the best game show on TV"; another asks plaintively "Why can't our food pages have something on them that most people like?"

From Kirkus Reviews:

Shepard, who spent 45 years at the New York Times as a reporter and editor, clearly enjoyed this rummage through the paper's archival attic. Others, not dying of curiosity to read memos from publishers to editors concerning wedding announcements and obituaries, might not care to rummage with him. In fairness to Shepard's book, its heart clearly lies in more than 120 photographs and reproductions of other material from the Times's archives, dating back to the paper's birth in 1851-- materials that were not available for review. These range from a 1912 letter from publisher Adolph Ochs describing lunch at his home with President William Howard Taft (seating chart and luncheon menu included) to a 1942 memo from Ochs's son-in-law and successor, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, on the great debate over whether the paper should include a crossword puzzle. Imagining this missing material makes the book a more pleasant browse but does nothing to make it seem more vital or compelling. Shepard offers a voyeur's view of the inner workings of the newspaper and the ways it has evolved over the years. One can read, for instance, memos that circulated among Times executives discussing the merits of comics (no) or a bridge column (eventually, yes). All these decisions were influenced by powerful egos balanced by an equally powerful reverence for the Times as a grand institution not to be tampered with lightly. Shepard does touch briefly on such larger issues as the need to rethink foreign news coverage in the postCold War era. Yet a chapter on the Bay of Pigs coverage and the Pentagon Papers is shorter than the one devoted to society and style. In the end Shepard's book proves a cardinal rule of newspaper journalism: Most readers will find yesterday's issues useful primarily for the wrapping of dead fish. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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