• by Melynda Fuller , January 9, 2019

Yesterday, A.G. Sulzberger, who took over as publisher of The New York Times in early 2018, delivered the outlet’s 2019 State of The Times address to employees.

In the address, which is published in full online, Sulzberger acknowledged the many successes for the organization over the last year, including recording 4 million paid subscribers and 150 million monthly visitors worldwide.

He also celebrated The Times' expansion across print, digital, podcasts and now televisioin, with the launch of FX’s The Weekly.

“People no longer want to read news from one source, listen to news from another source, and watch news by someone else. People are looking for a single news source they can trust, in every form,” Sulzberger stated.

“That we can be recognizably The Times in all these different formats shows how well we’re navigating the digital transition. And it shows how big we believe the opportunity is for the company in the years ahead,” he added.

Sulzberger also focused on the many deep dives and breaking stories produced by the organization over the past year, citing the issue of the NYT Magazine dedicated exclusively to climate change, an eight-page story focused on a Chinese sex worker who committed suicide in Queens, and a multipronged investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian spy.

The address drew on one of the important tenets of quality journalism: the ability to enact change in the world. Through the outlet’s reporting on sexual harassment and abuse allegations around CBS CEO Les Moonves, Sulzberger noted Mooves was stripped of his $120 million severance package. 

Sulzberger also noted The Times’ reporting on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica as one that “reminded us that journalism has the power to create change at the societal level,” along with reporting that spurred new sexual-harassment guidelines at Google and the famine in Yemen that resulted in a Senate vote to end support of the war the.

He concluded: “At The Times, our mission is to seek the truth and to help people understand the world. We do this because we believe in the power of great journalism to make each reader’s life richer and more fulfilling, and to make all of society stronger and more just.”