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Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Sr., left, with Abe Rosenthal at a charity event at the Plaza Hotel in New York in 1991.
to scrupulously study
market research. Having
worked much of the time
on the business side of
the paper, he knows that
diversity does more than
serve humanity: It’s also
the only commerciallyviable way to go now.
He’s taking over The
Times during the biggest
slump in the newspaper industry in history.
Nationally, USA Today
has taken center stage,
becoming the largestcirculation newspaper
in the country; much of
its success can be attributed to the fact that
it’s the most culturally
diverse news organization in America. Locally,
the bulk of The Times’s
straight, white, uppermiddle-class readership
is increasingly fleeing
the city and turning to
The Times less and less.
“New York Newsday
has made no secret of
the fact that it is intensely covering gay
and lesbian issues,”
notes Stuart Elliott, The
Times’s popular advertising columnist, regarding the tabloid competition whose circulation
is steadily increasing.
“It’s clear that Newsday
is prominently placing
these stories so that gays
will turn to it.”
Elliott, a gay man,
spent three years at USA
Today, which he describes as, “the gorgeous