The New York Times – Leadership and Notable Journalists

Founded in 1851, The New York Times has long held a reputation for being one of the most influential newspapers in the world. Although the NYT now offers more than just its newspaper (such as applications, podcasts and a games section), its journalists and editors have been some of the most influential people to help shape and grow the institution over the years.  

New York Times Leadership

Since the creation of the newspaper, The New York Times’ leadership teams have played an essential role in defining the vision of the organization. Its operational structure has changed multiple times throughout its lengthy history through the inclusion and exclusion of a number of key roles, to ensure the demands of readers are always met.

NYT Publishers

Present throughout almost every year of the organization’s rich history, The Publisher of The New York Times is responsible for overseeing business operations, editorial content and the long term vision of the company. 

When the company’s co-founder George Jones passed away in 1891, the role became vacant as his son and son-in-law (who were the intended successors) did not have enough business experience to continue running the company. George F. Spinney reprised the role two years later having acquired the company alongside Charles Ransom Miller and Edward Cary.

Period	Name
2018 to present	A. G. Sulzberger
2017 to 2018	N/A
1992 to 2017	Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.
1963 to 1992	Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger
1961 to 1963	Orvil Dryfoos
1935 to 1961	Arthur Hays Sulzberger
1896 to 1935	Adolph Ochs
1893 to 1896	George F. Spinney
1891 to 1893	N/A
1851 to 1891	George Jones

NYT Executive Editors

The Executive Editor position at the New York Times was created to become the main news official of the organization, superseding the historic Managing Editor role. The Executive Editor position has existed since 1964 and as of 2024, there have been 10 different people to hold the title.

After James Reston became Vice President in 1969, The New York Times decided upon a different editorial structure. To progress the organization, a group of editors were selected to collectively manage the newspaper’s direction. 

This was likely to have been influenced by the unique stories in journalism at the time, as well as changes in the preferences of readers. However, the position of Executive Editor was restored in 1977 and A.M. Rosenthal took the role in a return to the traditional editorial structure.

Period	Name
2022 to present	Joseph Kahn
2014 to 2022	Dean Baquet
2011 to 2014	Jill Abramson
2003 to 2011	Bill Keller
2003 to 2003*	Joseph Lelyveld
2001 to 2003	Howell Raines
1994 to 2001	Joseph Lelyveld
1986 to 1994	Max Frankel
1977 to 1986	A. M. Rosenthal
1969 to 1976	N/A
1968 to 1969	James Reston
1964 to 1968	Turner Catledge

NYT Managing Editors

Originally, Managing Editors within The New York Times would work closely underneath the Editor-in-Chief and other editors in order to ensure that accuracy, quality and timeliness were always met. Managing editors became the go-to person in the newsroom after the Editor-in-Chief role was removed, before being superseded by Executive Editors.

The position was not available between 1893 to 1904 and was discontinued from 1997 onwards due to changes in the organizational structure.

Period	Name
1994 to 1997	Gene Roberts
1990 to 1994	Joseph Lelyveld
1989 to 1990	N/A
1986 to 1989	Arthur Gelb
1977 to 1986	Seymour Topping
1969 to 1977	A. M. Rosenthal
1964 to 1969	Clifton Daniel
1952 to 1964	Turner Catledge
1951 to 1952	N/A
1932 to 1951	Edwin Leland James
1904 to 1932	Carr Van Anda
1893 to 1904	N/A
1889 to 1893	George F. Spinney

NYT Editor-in-Chief

Previously considered to be the highest editorial position within the newspaper, the person in this role was required to oversee the newsroom’s daily operations, working closely with reporters, editors and other supporting staff members. The Editor-in-Chief was also responsible for setting the standards of the newspaper, ensuring accurate, quality and timely content.

Originally this role was held by co-founder Henry Jarvis Raymond until 1869 when he passed away. The position remained vacant with The New York Times operating using a system of co-editors until 1883, when Charles Ransom Miller took over the role after a change in direction. The role was fully discontinued in 1922.

Period	Name
1883 to 1922	Charles Ransom Miller
1869 to 1883	N/A
1851 to 1869	Henry Jarvis Raymond

New York Times Pulitzer Prizes

As of 2023, The New York Times has won 131 Pulitzer Prizes between 1918 and 2023, which is more than any other organization. Of these awards, they have received:

• 26 for International Reporting (1st – 19.85%).
• 12 for National Reporting (2nd – 9.16%).
• 10 for Commentary (3rd – 7.63%).

#	Year	Awarded to	Awarded for
1	1918	The New York Times	Public Service
2	1923	Alva Johnson	Reporting
3	1926	Edward M. Kingsbury	Editorial Writing
4	1930	Russell Owen	Reporting
5	1932	Walter Duranty	Correspondence
6	1934	Frederick T. Birchall	Correspondence
7	1935	Arthur Krock	Correspondence
8	1936	Lauren D. Lyman	Reporting
9	1937	William L. Laurence	Reporting
10	1937	Anne O’Hare McCormick	Correspondence
11	1938	Arthur Krock	Correspondence
12	1940	Otto D. Tolischus	Correspondence
13	1941	The New York Times	Special Citation
14	1942	Louis Stark	Telegraphic Reporting (National)
15	1943	Hanson W. Baldwin	Correspondence
16	1944	The New York Times	Public Service
17	1945	James Reston	Telegraphic Reporting (National)
18	1946	William L. Laurence	Reporting
19	1946	Arnaldo Cortesi	Correspondence
20	1947	Brooks Atkinson	Correspondence
21	1949	C.P. Trussell	National Reporting
22	1950	Meyer Berger	Local Reporting
23	1951	Arthur Krock	Special Citation
24	1951	Cyrus L. Sulzberger	Special Citation
25	1952	Anthony H. Leveiro	National Reporting
26	1953	The New York Times	Special Citation
27	1955	Harrison E. Salisbury	International Reporting
28	1956	Arthur Daley	Local Reporting
29	1957	James Reston	National Correspondence
30	1958	Staff of The New York Times	International Reporting
31	1960	A.M. Rosenthal	International Reporting
32	1963	Anthony Lewis	National Reporting
33	1964	David Halberstam	International Reporting
34	1968	J. Anthony Lukas	Local Investigative Specialized Reporting
35	1970	Ada Louise Huxtable	Criticism
36	1971	Harold C. Schonberg	Criticism
37	1972	The New York Times	Public Service
38	1973	Max Frankel	International Reporting
39	1974	Hedrick Smith	International Reporting
40	1976	Sydney H. Schanberg	International Reporting
41	1976	Walter W. Smith	Commentary
42	1978	Henry Kamm	International Reporting
43	1978	Walter Kerr	Criticism
44	1978	William Safire	Commentary
45	1979	Russell Baker	Commentary
46	1981	John M. Crewdson	National Reporting
47	1981	Dave Anderson	Commentary
48	1982	John Darnton	International Reporting
49	1982	Jack Rosenthal	Editorial Writing
50	1983	Thomas L. Friedman	International Reporting
51	1983	Nan C. Robertson	Feature Writing
52	1984	John Noble Wilford	National Reporting
53	1984	Paul Goldberger	Criticism
54	1986	Staff of The New York Times	Explanatory Journalism
55	1986	Donal Henahan	Criticism
56	1987	Alex S. Jones	Specialized Reporting
57	1987	Staff of The New York Times	National Reporting
58	1988	Thomas L. Friedman	International Reporting
59	1989	Bill Keller	International Reporting
60	1990	Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn	International Reporting
61	1991	Natalie Angier	Beat Reporting
62	1991	Serge Schmemann	International Affairs
63	1992	Anna Quindlen	Commentary
64	1992	Howell Raines	Feature Writing
65	1993	John F. Burns	International Reporting
66	1994	Staff of The New York Times	Spot News Reporting
67	1994	Isabel Wilkerson	Feature Writing
68	1994	Kevin Carter	Feature Photography
69	1995	Margo Jefferson	Criticism
70	1996	Rick Bragg	Feature Writing
71	1996	Robert D. McFadden	Spot News Reporting
72	1996	Robert B. Semple, Jr.	Editorial Writing
73	1997	John F. Burns	International Reporting
74	1998	Linda Greenhouse	Beat Reporting
75	1998	Michiko Kakutani	Criticism
76	1998	Staff of The New York Times	International Reporting
77	1999	Maureen Dowd	Commentary
78	1999	Staff of The New York Times, notably Jeff Gerth	National Reporting
79	2001	David Cay Johnson	Beat Reporting
80	2001	Staff of The New York Times	National Reporting
81	2002	The New York Times	Public Service
82	2002	Staff of The New York Times	Explanatory Reporting
83	2002	Gretchen Morgenson	Beat Reporting
84	2002	Barry Bearak	International Reporting
85	2002	Thomas L. Friedman	Commentary
86	2002	Staff of The New York Times	Breaking News Photography
87	2002	Staff of The New York TImes	Feature Photography
88	2003	Clifford J. Levy	Investigative Reporting
89	2004	The New York Times	Public Service
90	2005	Walt Bogdanich	National Reporting
91	2006	Nicholas D. Kristof	Commentary
92	2006	Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley	International Reporting
93	2006	James Risen and Eric Lichtblau	National Reporting
94	2007	Andrea Elliott	Feature Writing
95	2008	Amy Harmon	Explanatory Reporting
96	2008	Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker	Investigative Reporting
97	2009	David Barstow	Investigative Reporting
98	2009	Staff of The New York Times	Breaking News Reporting
99	2010	Michael Moss and members of the Staff of The New York Times	Explanatory Reporting
100	2010	Matt Richtel	National Reporting
101	2010	The New York Times Magazine in collaboration with Sheri Fink (ProPublica)	Investigative Reporting
102	2011	Clifford J. Levy and Ellen Barry	International Reporting
103	2011	David Leonhardt	Commentary
104	2012	David Kocieniewski	Explanatory Reporting
105	2012	Jeffrey Gettleman	International Reporting
106	2013	David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab	Investigative Reporting
107	2013	Staff of The New York Times	Explanatory Reporting
108	2013	David Barboza	International Reporting
109	2013	John Branch	Feature Writing
110	2014	Tyler Hicks	Breaking News Photography
111	2014	Josh Haner	Feature Photography
112	2015	Eric Lipton	Investigative Reporting
113	2015	Staff of The New York Times	International Reporting
114	2015	Daniel Berehulak	Feature Photography
115	2016	Tyler Hicks, Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev and Daniel Etter	Breaking News Photography
116	2016	Alissa Rubin	International Reporting
117	2017	C.J. Chivers	Feature Writing
118	2017	Staff of The New York Times	International Reporting
119	2017	Daniel Berehulak	Breaking News Photography
120	2018	Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey, Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt	Public Service
121	2018	Staff of The New York Times and The Washington Post	National Reporting
122	2018	Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan	Editorial Cartooning
123	2019	David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner	Explanatory Reporting
124	2019	Brent Staples	Editorial Writing
125	2020	Brian M. Rosenthal	Investigative Reporting
126	2020	Staff of The New York Times	International Reporting
127	2020	Nikole Hannah-Jones	Commentary
128	2021	The New York Times	Public Service
129	2021	Wesley Morris	Criticism
130	2023	Staff of The New York Times	International Reporting
131	2023	Mona Chalabi	Illustrated Reporting and Commentary

A graph is given below to show the number of Pulitzer Prizes awarded to The New York Times by topic:

Notable NYT journalists

A large contributor to the New York Times’ overall popularity is the depth-of-knowledge and global coverage of its journalists and editors. Many of the most notable journalists to have worked for the publication have pushed forward controversial viewpoints, shown bravery to expose sensitive stories and have even reported from unstable regions and countries.

Anthony Lewis

• He was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for National Reporting in 1955 (which helped restore a U.S. Navy employee to his position) and in 1963 (for his detailed covering of the U.S. Supreme Court during the year).
• President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001 for being a brave, standout voice for justice and democracy. 
• In 2008, he was honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship due to his work in the area of free expression and First Amendment rights.

David Halberstam

• In 1964, he received a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting alongside Malcolm W. Browne due to their reporting of the Vietnam War and the overthrowing of the Diem regime.
• Continuing his research, he released a book on the origins of the Vietnam War in 1972 (“The Best and the Brightest”), which is now considered a classic on the subject matter.
• He is also widely-known for his works on the Civil Rights Movement, the Korean War and towards the latter end of his career, sports journalism.

Dean Baquet

• In 1988, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism with William Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski for detailed reporting on the detrimental effect of self-interest and waste on the City Council of Chicago.
• He was named the Executive Editor of The New York Times for 8 years between May 2014 and June 2022, the only Black person to have ever held this position.
• Throughout his time in leadership, Baquet was known for his emphasis on investigative journalism, digital innovation and for prioritizing the hiring of reporters and editors of color.

Gay Talese

• Gay Talese is considered to be one of the pioneers of New Journalism (with a subjective perspective and extensive imagery) alongside Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, and Hunter S. Thompson.
• His most famous work, “Frank Sinatra Has A Cold”, was published for Esquire in 1966 and is considered to be one of the most famous pieces of journalism to be published in a magazine.
• The article is also recognized for being the best ever profile of Frank Sinatra and it is still widely read and studied today.

Harrison Salisbury

• In 1955, Salisbury won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting based upon a series of articles detailing his 6 years as a New York Times correspondent in Russia, battling against Soviet censorship to help Americans see how Russia was from the inside.
• During the 1960s, he reported on the growing Civil Rights Movement that was taking place in the Southern States and also directed NYT’s coverage of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
• After reporting from North Vietnam in 1966, Salisbury became one of the first mainstream journalists to provide an opposing voice to the Vietnam War.

Herbert Matthews

• In 1937, The New York Times asked Herbert Matthews to provide coverage of the Spanish Civil war and he would regularly telephone his stories to Paris which would be transmitted to New York for publication.
• 20 years later, his groundbreaking interview with Fidel Castro exposed false claims made by Fulgencio Batista (the President of Cuba at the time) who said that Castro had been killed the previous year.
• His later journalism is well-known for showing the “other side” of revolutions and wars, which made him somewhat of a controversial figure as he could often be seen as  sympathetic towards hostile groups/nations.

James Reston

• Won a Pulitzer Prize on two occasions (1945 for National Telegraphic Reporting on the Dumbarton Oaks security conference and in 1957 for National Reporting, with emphasis on the effect of President Eisenhower’s illness on the Executive Branch of the Federal Government).
• Due to his reporting, he was placed on the master list of Nixon’s political opponents (alongside 219 other people/organizations) created by Charles Colson during the Nixon administration. 
• Top government officials were said to have seen Reston’s works as required reading due to the mutually beneficial professional relationships he held with them.

Jill Abramson

• Abramson joined the New York Times in 1997 following her success at The American Lawyer, Legal Times and The Wall Street Journal.
• In 2011, Jill Abramson made history by becoming the first ever female Executive Editor of The New York Times.
• Following her new title, Forbes magazine placed her 5th on a list of the most powerful women in 2012 and she was named as one of the 500 most powerful people in the world by Foreign Policy magazine in 2013.

Linda Greenhouse

• Between 1981 and 2008, she had published more than 2,800 articles in the New York Times.
• In 1988, Greenhouse won a Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting due to her consistent and detailed coverage of the United States Supreme Court.
• She is also known to have voiced opposition to the US policies and actions taken at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and Haditha.

Maggie Haberman

• Haberman was hired by the New York Times in 2015 in order to provide political coverage on the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
• Her rise to fame can be attributed to her reporting of Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, presidency and post-presidency.
• By 2021, one analysis showed that she had become one of the most widely-followed political journalists among the staff of the Biden administration.

Nicholas Kristof

• After their reporting on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn won a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting the following year.
• He won his second in 2006 for columns that gave attention to genocide in Darfur, Western Sudan, detailing the suffering of those from the region.
• Overall he is known and revered for his unique opinion journalism and exposure of social injustice and human rights abuse issues.  

Seymour Hersh

• In 1969, Hersh gained recognition for reporting on the My Lai massacre war-crime that was covered-up during the Vietnam War, earning him the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting the following year.
• During the 1970s he also covered the Watergate scandal, the secret bombing of Cambodia by the US and the CIA’s domestic spying program. 
• In 2023, he also made the controversial allegation that the Nord Stream pipelines had been sabotaged by the United States and Norway.

Sydney Schanberg

• In 1976, Schanberg won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting due to his coverage on the communist takeover in Cambodia which was carried out at great personal risk.
• He was also recognized for covering the Pakistani genocide and also for covering the Vietnam War. 
• Schanberg had a reputation for resigning from positions during his career due to having strong opinions that were at odds with those of his publications.

Thomas L. Friedman

• After beginning his career in the 1980s, Friedman won two Pulitzer Prizes in International Reporting for covering the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1983 and for providing balanced reporting on politics in Israel in 1988.
• He won his third Pulitzer Prize (this time in Commentary) in 2002 for his reporting on the Global War on Terrorism following the September 11 attacks on the US.
• Despite his high level recognition earlier in his career, his later works have been frequently criticized due to showing support for areas related to globalization and his increasingly pro-business stances.

Walter Duranty

• Duranty was one of the most prominent Western journalists to be based in Moscow and in 1932 he earned a Pulitzer Prize for a series of reports regarding details of the Soviet Union.
• His unique position allowed him to access and communicate with powerful soviet leaders such as Josef Stalin, so he could provide readers with detailed and unique perspectives.
• However, by 1990 there was pressure to revoke him of his Pulitzer Prize, due to his denial of the widespread famine that took place in the Ukraine from 1930 – 1933 and for being seen as downplaying or denying negative aspects of the Soviet regime.