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The New York Times Company Business Information, Profile, and History

229 West 43rd Street
New York, New York 10036
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

The core purpose of The New York Times Company is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high quality news, information and entertainment.

History of The New York Times Company

The New York Times Company (NYTC) is a diversified media company including newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations, electronic information services, and electronic publishing. The company publishes three major daily newspapers, the New York Times (the Times), the International Herald Tribune, and the Boston Globe, and 16 regional newspapers. The company operates eight network-affiliated television stations and two New York City radio stations. The Times Syndicate sells columns, magazine and book excerpts, and feature packages to more than 2,000 newspapers and other media to clients in more than 50 countries. It is the largest syndicate in the world specializing in text, photos, graphics, and other noncartoon features. As part of an aggressive expansion campaign the New York Times increased its U.S. distribution from 62 markets in 1997 to 235 in 2002.

19th-Century Founding

The principal founders of the New York Times were Henry Jarvis Raymond, a sometime politician, reporter, and editor who learned his trade working for Horace Greeley on the New York Tribune, and George Jones, an Albany, New York, banker who had also once worked for Greeley as a business manager on the Tribune. Raymond proposed a newspaper that would present the news in a conservative and objective fashion, in contrast to the yellow journalism of the day, which emphasized crime, scandal, and radical politics. They raised $70,000 to establish Raymond, Jones & Company, in large part by selling stock to wealthy upstate New York investors, and set up their editorial offices in a dilapidated six-story brownstone on Nassau Street in downtown New York City. The first issue of the New York Daily Times (the word "Daily" was dropped from the title in 1857) was dated September 18, 1851, and it announced an editorial policy that would emphasize accurate reporting and moderation of opinion and expression.

Jones handled the company's business affairs, and Raymond, as editor, provided journalistic leadership. Under their management, helped by booming population growth in New York City, the Times grew rapidly, reaching 10,000 circulation within ten days and 24,000 by the end of its first year. In 1858 the paper moved into a new five-story building containing the most modern printing equipment. As the Times prospered, Raymond established and continually encouraged the high standards of journalism that prevail to this day. It also became a newspaper of record. For example, it carried the entire text of Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" on the front page on November 20, 1863. Among other journalistic successes, the Times provided outstanding coverage of the U.S. Civil War, with Raymond himself reporting on the Battle of Bull Run.

Raymond was active in Republican politics throughout the war. He was present at the creation of the party in Pittsburgh in 1856 and wrote its first statement of principles. He wrote most of the party platform in 1864. Between political activity and journalism, Raymond was chronically overworked for years, and his health suffered. On June 19, 1869, at the age of 49, he died. George Jones assumed the editorial leadership of the Times.

By the time of Raymond's death, each of the 100 shares of stock in the company had increased in value from the original $1,000 to about $11,000, with 34 shares held by Raymond and 30 by Jones. In 1871, after a series of Times articles on the misdeeds of corrupt New York City politicians headed by William Marcy (Boss) Tweed, an attempt was made by Tweed interests to buy Raymond's 34 shares from his widow. Jones quickly arranged to have the shares purchased by one of his associates, thus establishing his control of the newspaper. In 1884 Jones chose to oppose the nomination by the Republican party of James G. Blaine for president, thus losing the much needed support of Republican readers and advertisers. The paper's profits fell steadily until Jones's death in 1891. His heirs had little aptitude for the newspaper business, and the panic and depression of 1893 brought the Times close to failure.

In 1893 the Times's editor-in-chief, Charles Ransom Miller, bought control of the paper from Jones's heirs with $1 million raised from Wall Street interests. Miller, a fine editor, had no business aptitude and was unable to maintain the newspaper's capital requirements. Staff reductions and declining journalistic quality brought the Times to its historic low point, and by 1896 it was on the verge of bankruptcy and dissolution. During this critical year salvation came in a dramatic fashion. A group of Wall Street investors in what was then called the New York Times Publishing Company arranged to save the firm--and their investments--by placing it in receivership and recapitalizing it as a new company, The New York Times Company. The new capitalization was 10,000 shares with 2,000 being paid out in exchange for the original Times stock. A large stock position with contractual assurance of eventual majority stock ownership was purchased with borrowed money by a then little known but respected newspaper editor and publisher from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Adolph Simon Ochs.

Ochs, the son of German immigrants, had received little formal schooling, but had learned the newspaper business from the ground up as newsboy, printer's devil, journeyman printer, business manager, and reporter. He was hard-working and ambitious. In 1878, at the age of 20, he borrowed $250 to buy the controlling interest in a failing Tennessee newspaper, the Chattanooga Times, thus beginning his career as a newspaper publisher before he was old enough to vote. He promoted high standards of journalism in the Chattanooga paper and soon brought it back to financial health. In 1896, looking for new challenges, he heard about the New York Times's troubles. Ochs offered to take over as publisher in return for a contract that would give him a majority of the paper's stock if he succeeded in making it profitable for three consecutive years. One of his early acts after becoming publisher of the Times on August 18, 1896, was to add the slogan, "All the News That's Fit To Print," thus serving notice that the Times would continue to avoid sensationalism and follow high editorial standards.

Arrival of Adolph Ochs at the End of the 19th Century

Ochs's first two years with the Times were a continual struggle to carry on operations and improve the paper with inadequate capital. The expenses of covering the Spanish-American War in 1898 came close to ruining the paper, which sold then for three cents a copy. Some Times executives advised raising the price, but Ochs made the brilliant and daring decision to reduce the price to one cent. Within a year paid circulation trebled from 26,000 to 76,000. Advertising linage increased by nearly 40 percent, and the paper was profitable. Despite subsequent price increases, this was the beginning of a long upward trend in circulation and profitability. On August 14, 1900, Ochs received the NYTC stock certificates that established his control over the paper and the company, a controlling interest that was still held by his descendants in 1991.

The Times's success under Ochs was due to much more than price-cutting. He improved financial and Wall Street coverage, added a Sunday magazine supplement, and a Saturday book review section, which was later moved to Sunday. With a brilliant managing editor, Carr Van Anda, the Times carried out numerous journalistic coups. It scooped the world on the Japanese-Russian naval battle in 1904 by sending the first wireless dispatches from a war area. It again scooped the world on the Titanic shipwreck in 1912 and outdid all competition in reporting the events of World War I. The paper warned of the excesses of the 1920s, but was well equipped financially to survive the Great Depression thanks to Ochs's conservative policy of plowing back into the paper a major portion of its profits.

Under Ochs, the NYTC followed a general policy of avoiding diversification, although Ochs himself continued as the personal owner and publisher of the Chattanooga Times and had a private investment in a Philadelphia paper between 1901 and 1913. In 1926, however, the NYTC did take part ownership, along with Kimberly & Clark Company, in a Canadian paper mill, the Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company, to assure its supplies of newsprint.

The Times did relatively well during the Great Depression, with daily circulation holding in the 450,000 to 500,000 range. Ochs's health declined during the early 1930s, and he died on April 8, 1935. On May 7, 1935, the company's directors elected as president and publisher Ochs's son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, who had married Ochs's daughter Iphigene in 1917 and subsequently worked his way up through the executive ranks of the newspaper.

New Leadership in the Postwar Period

Under Sulzberger the Times improved steadily in news coverage, financial strength, and technical progress. In a diversification move in 1944 the NYTC purchased New York City radio stations WQXR and WQXR-FM. Sulzberger opposed without success the unionization of Times employees. The company's first published financial statement in 1958 showed 60 consecutive years of increasing profits. In 1957 a recapitalization split the common stock into A and B common stock, with the B shares, mostly held by the Ochs trust, having voting control over the company. Sulzberger's health began to fail in the late 1950s. He retired in 1961. His successor as president and publisher was his son-in-law, Orvil E. Dryfoos. Dryfoos died in 1963. On June 20, 1963, he was succeeded in turn as president and publisher by Arthur Hays Sulzberger's son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who continued in 1991 to lead the NYTC as chairman and chief executive officer.

Although Sulzberger made some administrative changes and broadened the scope of the Times news coverage, the company continued to earn a relatively low profit margin on revenues, partly because of his policy of spending freely for thorough reporting, even to the extent of throwing out advertisements to make room for news. A second bitter strike against the paper in 1965 unsettled the management, and a decision was made to undertake a significant program of diversification. In 1967 the company's book and educational division was enlarged, and in 1968 the Times purchased a 51 percent interest in Arno Press. In 1969 the A common stock was given the vote for three members of the nine-member board. This action together with a public offering qualified the A stock for listing on the American Stock Exchange. The B stock, which controlled the company, continued to be held mostly by the Ochs family trust. In 1971 the NYTC paid Cowles Communications Company 2.6 million shares of class A stock to purchase substantial newspaper, magazine, television, and book properties, including Family Circle and other magazines; a Florida newspaper chain; a Memphis, Tennessee, TV station; and a textbook publisher.

During the 1970s the newspaper's profit margins continued to be under pressure because of competition, especially in New York City suburban areas. The former Cowles properties helped buoy earnings despite the 1976 sale of some medical magazines acquired from Cowles. In 1980 the NYTC paid about $100 million for a southern New Jersey cable television operation, its largest acquisition since the Cowles deal. In 1984 the book publishing operation was sold to Random House, but in 1985 the NYTC, flush with record profits, spent about $400 million on the purchase of five regional newspapers and two TV stations. In 1986 yet another recapitalization converted every ten shares of B stock into nine shares of A and one share of B, with the B stock still controlling the company. Since more than 80 percent of the B stock was held by the Ochs trust, this move gave the trustees more liquidity without sacrificing control of the company. The years 1989 and 1990 continued to be profitable. In 1989 the NYTC, admitting it was not making progress with cable, sold all of its cable TV properties to a consortium of Pennsylvania cable companies for $420 million. Also in 1989 the company acquired McCall's magazine, which, together with the acquisitions in 1988 of Golf World and Sailing World, substantially strengthened the NYTC's magazine group. The company's large new automated printing and distribution facility in Edison, New Jersey, which had been under construction for several years, was scheduled to become operational in late 1990.

Diversification in the 1990s

Throughout the 1990s, the company would buy and sell properties in the areas of print, cable broadcasting, and electronic media because the decline in newspaper readership in the United States was continuing. In 1993, NYTC bought Affiliated Publications, which owned the Boston Globe and specialty magazines published by its division, BPI Communications. In 1994, the company sold its one-third interest in BPI, along with a group of women's magazines, including Family Circle and McCall's, to Germany's Bertelsmann AG. Also in 1994, NYTC began construction on a state-of-the-art printing plant that would allow adding more color to newspapers and allow for later deadlines.

In 1995, the purchase of a majority interest in Video News International, a video newsgathering company, was made. A return to cable was made when the company bought a minority stake in the cable arts network Ovation and launched two cable news channels in Arkansas. Also in 1995, the company entered cyberspace in two ways. One was by joining with eight other newspaper companies in an online news service, New Century Network. The other was creating The New York Times Electronic Media Company as a wholly owned subsidiary that would develop new products and distribution channels for the Times, such as on the Web, America Online (AOL), and The New York Times Index.

Two years later, in 1997, a new, expanded version of the AOL site debuted with a new design, improved navigation and functionality, new content areas, and expanded advertising opportunities, such as allowing advertisers to target ads to readers of particular sections. The new content, available only to AOL members who made the Times site one of the service's most popular since its debut in 1994, included People in the News area, enhancements to Science Times, live crosswords and news chats, a weekly news quiz, a Topic of the Day message board for discussions based on Page One articles, monthly Times retrospectives, free access to Times crossword puzzles and the bridge and chess columns, a themed monthly crossword puzzle, and The New York Times Magazine.

The New York Times Syndicate launched a weekly column written by the Duchess of York in 1997. The Duchess, who was the former Sarah Ferguson and former wife of Prince Andrew, the second son of Great Britain's Queen Elizabeth, wrote about current events and social issues that interested her.

The New York Times Company had come a long way from the small brownstone on Nassau Street where Henry Raymond published the first issue of the New York Times in 1851. Company success resulted not only from strong business leadership during much of its history but also from a series of capable publishers, editors, and reporters who built and continued to operate one of the world's great newspapers, in print and online.

Ambitious Expansion Efforts for the 21st Century

In 1997, the New York Times Company embarked on an ambitious program of expansion focused on transforming its flagship product, the New York Times newspaper, from a regional to a national publication. Integral to the goal of building widespread brand recognition was a new, $20 million advertising campaign featuring the slogan, "Expect the World." That year, the newspaper also implemented the most extensive changes to its operations and format since the 1970s. With more advanced production equipment, the paper was able to included later-breaking news and sports scores, as well as new sections and features. On October 16, the paper introduced color printing to its front page.

Further, as 1997 marked the culmination of a ten-year, $1 billion program of capital investments to shore up the paper's strengths, its print facilities, and its customer base, the company enjoyed a dramatic increase in cash flow, which it began to allocate toward two long-term goals, both aimed at increasing shareholder value. First, the company launched an aggressive share repurchasing initiative--starting with three million shares valued at $145.6 million that year, the initiative grew every year with the company allocating $623.7 million for the repurchase of 15 million shares in 2001--in order to improve its overall leverage and increase stock dividends. Second, the company sought strategic acquisitions to expand its portfolio of products and services, enter new markets, and facilitate distribution by opening new print sites around the country.

The company continued to flourish. Among other efforts to increase the appeal of its nationally distributed newspaper, the New York Times added new features such as Circuits, a weekly technology section introduced in 1998, which was soon generating about $1 million per month in advertising revenue. In 1999, with the economic boom of the 1990s still holding, the company enjoyed earnings per share growth of 20.5 percent, its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Moreover, revenues for 1999 reached an unprecedented $3.1 billion, while total costs increases were comparatively modest. Indeed, even while the company focused on expansion, it continued to keep a firm grasp on its expenses, and to hone its focus on core businesses. In 1997 the Magazine Group sold off six of its smaller, low-margin publications in order to channel more resources into its high-margin golf publications, especially the award-winning Golf World. Although the golf magazines remained popular and profitable, they contributed only about 3 percent to the company's overall revenue, and by 2000 the company moved to sell off its Magazine Group entirely to Advance Publications, Inc.

To keep pace with the growing Internet economy, in 1999 the company established New York Times Digital, an independent business unit, to oversee the operations of NYTimes.com, then boasting more than ten million registered users. The company adopted what it called a "click and brick" business model, by which it sought to establish synergies between its traditional print media and its electronic offerings, as well as to maximize the revenue potential of the Internet. To this end, in 1999 the NYTC invested $15 million in TheStreet.com, one of the top Internet providers of financial information and investment news and commentary, a digital publication with whom the Times shared a key customer base. The New York Times Digital unit reached profitability in 2002.

The year 2001 proved turbulent for the NYTC, as the dot-com bubble burst, the economic slowdown bloomed into a full recession, and as New York City weathered the terrorist attacks of September 11. Still, the company managed to perform well in the midst of chaos, with earnings per share growth of 8 percent in a year when the S&P 500 dropped by 13 percent, and an impressive six Pulitzer prizes to show for the New York Times's coverage of 9/11. Staying the course with its national expansion program, the company had increased its distribution from 62 markets in 1997 to 235 in 2002. Even as the national program enjoyed overwhelming success, the company also continued to invest in its regional media properties, especially through its ownership of the Boston Globe, and to lay the groundwork for penetration of international markets through the introduction of branded pages into respected foreign newspapers such as France's Le Monde.

The New York Times newspaper was beset by an internal crisis in the spring of 2003 when news emerged that one of its reporters had written numerous fraudulent and even plagiarized stories that had gone undetected by his supervisors. The scandal resulted in the resignation of two of the paper's top editors, Howell Raines and Gerald M. Boyd, and a serious blemish on the record of the otherwise revered paper. Despite this unfortunate episode, however, most agreed that the paper's image would soon be restored. Overall the New York Times Company appeared exceptionally well-positioned for continued success into the first decade of the 21st century.

Principal Subsidiaries: NYT Capital, Inc.; NYT Holdings Inc.; The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation; The New York Times Distribution Corporation; The New York Times Electronic Media Company; The New York Times Sales Company; The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation.

Principal Competitors: Dow Jones & Company, Inc.; Gannett Co., Inc.; The News Corporation Limited.

Related information about New York

pop (2000e) 18 976 500; area 127 185 km²/49 108 sq mi. State in NE USA, divided into 62 counties; the ‘Empire State’; second most populous state; one of the original states of the Union, 11th to ratify the Federal Constitution, 1788; explored by Hudson and Champlain, 1609; Dutch established posts near Albany, 1614, settled Manhattan, 1626; New Netherlands taken by the British, 1664; scene of several battles in the American Revolution (eg Saratoga); capital, Albany; other chief cities, New York City, Syracuse, Yonkers, Rochester, Buffalo; Hudson R flows S through the E state, St Lawrence R part of the N border, Delaware R part of the S border; Niagara Falls in W; Adirondack Mts rise in the N, Catskill Mts in the S; highest point in the Adirondacks at Mt Marcy (1629 m/5344 ft); state contains 11 334 km²/4375 sq mi of the Great Lakes, as well as L Oneida and the Finger Lakes in the C; extensive woodland and forest in the NE, elsewhere a mixture of cropland, pasture, and woodland; clothing, pharmaceuticals, publishing, electronics, automotive and aircraft components; dairy products, corn, beef; New York City the chief ethnically mixed centre of population in the USA.

text-align:center;">The Empire State

State animal	Beaver(Castor canadensis)
State bird	Eastern Bluebird(Sialia sialis)
State freshwater fish	Brook Trout
State saltwater fish	Striped Bass
State insect	Ladybug
State flower	Rose(Rosa)
State motto	"Excelsior!"
State song	"I Love New York"
State tree	Sugar Maple(Acer saccharum)
State fossil	Sea Scorpion(Eurypterus remipes)
State gem	Garnet
State beverage	Milk
State reptile	Snapping Turtle
State fruit	Apple
State shell	Bay Scallop
State muffin	Apple Muffin

New York is a state in the northeastern United States.

Geography

New York's borders touch (clockwise from the northwest) two Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River); the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut); the Atlantic Ocean, and two Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island shares a water border with New York.

New York is also the site of the only extra-territorial enclave within the boundaries of the U.S., the United Nations compound on Manhattan's East River.

The southern tip of New York State—New York City, its suburbs including Long Island, and the southern portion of the Hudson Valley—can be considered to form the central core of a "megalopolis," a super-city stretching from the northern suburbs of Boston to the southern suburbs of Jean Gottmann in 1961 as a new phenomenon in the history of world urbanization, the megalopolis is characterized by a coalescence of previous already-large cities of the Eastern Seaboard: a heavy specialization on tertiary activity related to government, trade, law, education, finance, publishing and control of economic activity; Several other groups of megalopolis-type super-cities exist in the world, but that centered around New York City was the first described and still is the best example.

While the state is best known for New York City's urban atmosphere, especially Manhattan's skyscrapers, most of the state is in fact dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. New York's Adirondack State Park is larger than any U.S. National Park outside of Alaska. The Hudson River begins with Lake Tear of the Clouds and flows south through the eastern part of the state without draining Lakes George or Champlain. Four of New York City's five boroughs are on the three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island.

"Upstate" is a common term for New York State counties north of suburban Westchester and Rockland counties. Upstate New York typically includes the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, the Shawangunk Ridge, the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes in the west; and Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Oneida Lake in the northeast; and rivers such as the Delaware, Genesee, Hudson, Mohawk, and Susquehanna. Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor, in 1524. Giovanni da Verrazzano named this place New Angouleme (Nouvelle Angoulême in french) in the honor of the French king Francis I ('François 1er' in french).
(Believed to be after this event) A French explorer and mapper, Samuel de Champlain, described his explorations through New York in 1608. A year later Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch, claimed the area in the name of the Netherlands.

Early settlement

The first European settlers in the area now known as the State of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning in 1613. The English traded the modern-day country of Suriname for New Amsterdam in 1664; The colony, then called the Province of New York, was divided into twelve counties, each of which was subdivided into towns. Two of New York's eastern coastal counties, Cornwall and Dukes, later became parts of Massachusetts and Maine.

Statehood

New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. It was the 11th state to ratify the United States Constitution, on July 26, 1788.

Origin

The Dutch, who began to establish trading-posts on the Hudson River in 1613, claimed jurisdiction over the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers, which they called New Netherlands. The government was vested in "The United New Netherland Company," chartered in 1614, and then in "The Dutch West India Company," chartered in 1622.

In 1649, a convention of the settlers petitioned the "Lords States-General of the United Netherlands" to grant them "suitable burgher government, such as their High Mightinesses shall consider adapted to this province, and resembling somewhat the government of our Fatherland," with certain permanent privileges and exemptions, that they might pursue "the trade of our country, as well along the coast from Terra Nova to Cape Florida as to the West Indies and Europe, whenever our Lord God shall be pleased to permit."

The directors of the West India Company resented this attempt to shake their rule and wrote their director and council at New Amsterdam: "We have already connived as much as possible at the many impertinences of some restless spirits, in the hope that they might be shamed by our discreetness and benevolence, but, perceiving that all kindnesses do not avail, we must, therefore, have recourse to God to Nature and the Law. We accordingly hereby charge and command your Honors whenever you shall certainly discover any Clandestine Meetings, Conventicles or machinations against our States government or that of our country that you proceed against such malignants in proportion to their crimes."

These grants embraced all the lands between the west bank of the Connecticut River and the east bank of the Delaware.

The Duke of York previously purchased in 1663 the grant of Long Island and other islands on the New England coast made in 1635 to the Earl of Stirling, and in 1664 he equipped an armed expedition which took possession of New Amsterdam, which was thenceforth called New York. This constitution was framed by a convention which assembled at White Plains, New York on July 10, 1776, and after repeated adjournments and changes of location, terminated its labors at Kingston, New York on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777, when the constitution was adopted with but one dissenting vote. This imbalance of power between the branches of state government kept the elite firmly in control, and disenfranchised most New Yorkers who would fight the Revolutionary War. Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.

Under this constitution, the Assembly had a provision for a maximum of 70 Members, with the following apportionment:

For the city (at the time, New York City included only what is today Manhattan) and county of New York, nine.
The city and county of Albany, ten
The county of Dutchess, seven.
The county of Westchester, six.
The county of Ulster, six.
The county of Suffolk (eastern Long Island), five.
The county of Queens (Now Queens and Nassau Counties), four.
The county of Orange (Now Orange and Rockland Counties), four.
The county of Kings (Brooklyn), two.
The county of Richmond (Staten Island), two.
Tryon County (Now Montgomery County), six.
Charlotte County (Now Washington County.), four.
Cumberland County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.), three.
Gloucester County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.), two.

This apportionment was to stand unchanged until a period of seven years from the end of the Revolution had expired, whereupon a census was held to correct the apportionment.

On the subject of Disenfranchisement, Article VII of the new constitution had the following to say:

VII. if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State: Provided always, That every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York on or before the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and usually resident in the said cities, respectively, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his said place of residence.

For more information on this constitution, see: New York State Constitutions

Westward expansion

The western part of New York had been settled by the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy for at least 500 years before Europeans came. The Sullivan Expedition moved northward through the Finger Lakes and Genesee Country, burning all the Iroquois communities and destroying their crops and orchards. The Hudson and Mohawk Rivers could be navigated only as far as Central New York. While the St. Lawrence River could be navigated to Lake Ontario, the way westward to the other Great Lakes was blocked by Niagara Falls, and so the only route to western New York was over land. Governor DeWitt Clinton strongly advocated building a canal to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie, and thus all the Great Lakes. The Welland Canal was completed in 1833, bypassing Niagara Falls to connect Lakes Ontario and Erie.

Sullivan's men returned from the campaign to Pennsylvania and New England to tell of the enormous wealth of this new territory.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, New York was the third largest state in population after California and Texas, with an estimated population of 19,254,630 factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=&_state=04000US36&_county=&_cityTown=&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph, which is an increase of 27,542, or 0.1%, from the prior year and an increase of 277,809, or 1.5%, since the year 2000.

The top ancestry groups in New York are African American (15.8%), Italian (14.4%), Irish (12.9%), and German (11.1%),

New York contains the country's largest Dominican population (concentrated in Upper Manhattan) and largest Puerto Rican population (concentrated in the Bronx). Brooklyn and the Bronx are home to many African-Americans and Queens has a large population of Latin American origin, as well as the state's largest Asian-American population.

The 2000 Census revealed which ancestries were in which counties. Italian-Americans make up the largest ancestral group in Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish-Americans. According to the July 1, 2004 Census Bureau Estimatefactfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US36&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-T1&-ds_name=PEP_2004_EST&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-mt_name=PEP_2004_EST_GCTT1_ST2&-format=ST-2&-_sse=on, New York City and its six closest New York State satellite counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange) have a combined population of 12,626,200 people, or 65.67% of the state's population.

New York State has a higher number of Italian-Americans than any other U.S. state.

Religion

As of 2006, the religious affiliations of New York citizens were:

40.0% Protestant,

38.9% Roman Catholic,

7.3% Baptist,

6.1% Methodist,

5.5% Episcopal,

3.2% Presbyterian,

17.9% Non-religious

3.4% Jewish,

2.0% Muslim,

The Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan contains the shrine and burial place of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini), the patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be canonized.

At Chautauqua Lake in the southwestern portion of the state is the Chautauqua Institution, co-founded by Methodist Reverend John Vincent and devoted to adult continuing education in an uplifting setting, as that ambiance was understood in the last half of the Nineteenth Century. While some aspects of this pedagogy may seem quaint today, the Institution helped assure that high intellectual achievement would be recognized as consistent with the value system of an emerging powerful Midwest, and was one of several ways that Upstate New York served between the Civil War and World War II as a transmitting intermediary between the standards of the East Coast and the interior agricultural regions of the central states.

Important cities and towns

New York City is both the largest city in the United States, and home to over two-fifths of the population of the entire state. It is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States and is the location of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street, Manhattan. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that in 2004, the total gross state product was $963.5 billionwww.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gspnewsrelease.htm, ranking 3rd behind California and Texas. New York's agricultural outputs are dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery stock, and apples. Its industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, and tourism.

Many of the world's largest corporations locate their headquarter's home offices in Manhattan or in nearby Westchester County, New York. The Fulton Fish Market has been moved from Fulton Street in Manhattan to The Bronx.

New York's mining sector is concentrated in three areas.

Agriculture

New York State is an agricultural leader, ranking within the top five states for agricultural products including dairy, apples, cherries, cabbages, potatoes, onions, maple syrup and many others. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides the right mix of soils and microclimate for many apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach orchards. The state has 30,000 acres (120 km²) of vineyards, 212 wineries, and produced 200 million bottles of wine in 2004.

New York was heavily glaciated in the ice age leaving much of the state with deep, fertile, though somewhat rocky soils. Row crops, including hay, corn, wheat, oats, barley, and soybeans, are grown. Particularly in the western part of the state, sweet corn, peas, carrots, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables are grown. The glaciers also left numerous swampy areas, which have been drained for the rich humus soils called muckland which is mostly used for onions, potatoes, celery and other vegetables. Cheese is a major product, often produced by Amish or Mennonite farm cheeseries. The honeybees are also used for pollination of fruits and vegetables. Most commercial beekeepers are migratory, taking their hives to southern states for the winter. Buffalo also has a lightrailsystem, and Rochester had a subway system, although it is mostly destroyed. Only a small part exists under the old Erie Canal Aquaduct.

New York City

New York City is home to the most complex and extensive transportation network in the United States, with more than 12,000 iconic yellow cabs, 120,000 daily bicyclists, a massive subway system, bus and railroad systems, immense airports, landmark bridges and tunnels, ferry service and even an aerial commuter tramway. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.

Many suburban commuter railroad lines enter and leave New York City, including the Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North, the PATH system and many of NJTransit's rail services.

Law and government

As in all fifty states, the head of the executive branch of government is a Governor. The legislative branch is called the Legislature and consists of a Senate and an Assembly. Unlike most states, the New York electoral law permits electoral fusion, and New York ballots tend to have, in consequence, a larger number of parties on them, some being permanent minor parties that seek to influence the major parties and others being ephemeral parties formed to give major-party candidates an additional line on the ballot.

New York's legislature is notoriously dysfunctional. Other officially incorporated governmental units are towns, cities, and villages.

Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit corporations, frequently known as authorities or development corporations. The most famous examples are probably the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees New York City's subway, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (actually a bi-state agency). New York State has its counties pay a higher percentage of welfare costs than any other state, and New York State is the only state which requires counties to pay a portion of Medicaid.

The court system in New York is often cited as assigning unintuitive names to its courts: the New York Supreme Court, which people often assume is "supreme" in the same sense as the Supreme Court of the United States, is not the highest court in the state (the New York Court of Appeals is). These courts are the starting point for all criminal cases outside cities, and handle a variety of other matters including small claims, traffic ticket cases and local zoning matters. Presidential candidate John Kerry won New York State by 18 percentage points in 2004, while Al Gore had an even bigger margin of a win in New York State in 2000. Many of the state's other urban areas, including Albany, Ithica, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuseare also Democratic. Heavily populated suburban areas such as Westchester County and Long Island usually hold the power in determining state elections and have tended to favor Republicans at the state level and Democrats at the federal level but that trend seems to be changing since the past few elections, with Democrats picking up some more power statewide in both regions.

Because New York State consistently votes Democratic in national elections, many observers argue the state is insignificant in presidential contests.

Education

Primary, middle-level, and secondary education

The University of the State of New York (USNY), its policy-setting Board of Regents, and USNY's administrative arm, the New York State Education Department (NYSED), oversee all public primary, middle-level, and secondary education in the state. However, as is found in most other US states, individual school districts in New York have much latitude in exercising management and policy for such education within their district boundaries.

New York is one of seven states that mandates that Holocaust and genocide studies be taught at some point in elementary or secondary schools' curriculum. New York City operates the City University of New York (CUNY) in conjunction with the state.

New York's land-grant university is Cornell University, a private university.

New York is the nation?s largest importer of college students, according to statistics which show that among freshmen who leave their home states to attend college, more come to New York than any other state, including California.The New York Observer. www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=13093&ic=Editorials

See also Education in New York City, list of Colleges and Universities in the State of New York

Professional sports teams

Club	Sport	League
Buffalo Bills	Football	National Football League
New York Jets	Football	National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
New York Giants	Football	National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
New York Knicks	Basketball	National Basketball Association
New Jersey Nets	Basketball	National Basketball Association;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey - planning move to the Brooklyn Nets Arena at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn)
New York Liberty	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association
Rochester Raging Rhinos	Soccer	USL First Division
Red Bull New York	Soccer	Major League Soccer;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
Buffalo Sabres	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
New York Islanders	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
New York Rangers	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
Adirondack Frostbite	Ice Hockey	United Hockey League
Albany River Rats	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Binghamton Senators	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Elmira Jackals	Ice Hockey	United Hockey League
Rochester Americans	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Syracuse Crunch	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
New York Mets	Baseball	Major League Baseball

New York Yankees	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Brooklyn Cyclones	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Staten Island Yankees	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Binghamton Mets	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Buffalo Bisons	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Jamestown Jammers	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Batavia Muckdogs	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Rochester Red Wings	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Auburn Doubledays	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Syracuse SkyChiefs	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Oneonta Tigers	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Tri-City Valley Cats	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Hudson Valley Renegades	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Long Island Ducks	Baseball	Atlantic League of Professional Baseball
New York Dragons	Arena football	Arena Football League
Long Island Lizards	Lacrosse	Major League Lacrosse
Rochester Rattlers	Lacrosse	Major League Lacrosse
Buffalo Bandits	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
Rochester Knighthawks	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
New York Titans	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
Brooklyn Wonders	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Buffalo Silverbacks	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Rochester Razorsharks	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Strong Island Sound	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Albany Patroons	Basketball	Continental Basketball Association

Navy vessel namesakes

There have been at least five United States Navy ships named USS New York in honor of the state. USS New York (LPD-21) was laid down on September 10 2004 and will be the sixth Navy ship to be named for the state.

References

Chronology

Key Dates:
1851: The New York Daily Times is founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, with the first issue appearing on September 18.
1857: The newspaper changes its name to the New York Times.
1869: Upon Henry Jarvis Raymond's death, George Jones assumes control of the newspaper.
1896: With the newspaper close to bankruptcy, a group of Wall Street investors arranges to save the firm--and their investments--by placing it in receivership and recapitalizing it as a new company, The New York Times Company; the paper's new publisher, Adolph Simon Ochs, adopts the slogan, "All the News That's Fit To Print."
1935: Following Ochs's death, his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, is elected president and publisher of the NYTC.
1963: Arthur Hays Sulzberger's son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, becomes president and publisher of the NYTC.
1965: The company embarks on its first major program of diversification, expanding its interests to include new newspaper, magazine, television, and book properties.
1995: The company enters cyberspace by joining with eight other newspaper companies in an online news service, New Century Network, and by creating The New York Times Electronic Media Company as a wholly owned subsidiary to develop new electronic products and distribution channels for the Times.
1997: The New York Times introduces color printing to its front page.
1999: Revenues reach an unprecedented $3.1 billion; the company invests $15 million in TheStreet.com, a top Internet provider of financial information and investment news and commentary.
2000: The company sells its Magazine Group to Advance Publications, Inc.
2001: The company is awarded six Pulitzer Prizes for the New York Times's coverage of the events of 9/11.

Additional topics

Company HistoryPublishing

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