The following essay discusses Arthur Ochs Sulzberger and his father, Arthur Hays Sulzberger.

Throughout the twentieth century members of the Ochs-Sulzberger family led the New York Times to its position as the standard-bearer in daily print journalism in the United States. The leadership task passed to the fourth generation of the family on 16 January 1992, when Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., took his father's place on the fourteenth floor of the Times Building on West Forty-third Street in New York City. In keeping with family tradition, the new publisher, like his father and grandfather before him, had prepared for the job by working in several departments at the Times.

Prior to his appointment, Sulzberger, Jr., served for almost four years as deputy publisher, with responsibility for the news and business departments of the newspaper. As his predecessors had, he pledged in a message on the editorial page his allegiance to...