Sulzberger: No 'Red' Papers for NY Times Co.

By: Mark Fitzgerald Don't look for The New York Times Co. to join the industry's rush into Spanish-language, youth or commuter newspapers, Chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. told an audience at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism Monday. And the International Herald-Tribune will not become the "International New York Times," either, the Times publisher vowed.

Responding to a question, Sulzberger said the company had studied the youth and commuter paper phenomenon -- especially the competing Chicago papers Red Eye and Red Streak -- and concluded that a similar Times (Click for QuikCap) product of short-attention-span content would not fit with its psychographically defined audience.

"I think (youth papers) are condescending, I think they degrade the readership, I think they're talking down to the reader," he said. "They're saying, 'You don't (understand) what we offer ... so we're going to give you this thing that you can get.' And you know something -- bullshit. We don't want to become less than we are to reach an audience whose needs we wouldn't do a good job of meeting."

Similarly, Sulzberger said the Times is not going to go after its audience with a Spanish-language product, though he noted the paper has reached arrangements with native-language dailies in New York City that, for instance, offer discounted combined buys of the Times and a Chinese-language daily.

When the Times Co. gained complete control of the International Herald-Tribune in Paris last year by forcing a buyout of the Washington Post Co.'s 50% share, there was speculation the paper would be renamed as an international edition of the Times. Sulzberger said that option was studied but rejected. "We found the brand 'International Herald-Tribune' carries an enormous amount of weight, so we're growing it," he said.

Sulzberger's appearance as part of the j-school's ongoing lecture series attracted an overflow audience seemingly composed equally of young journalism students and senior citizens from Evanston. At the outset, Medill Dean Loren Ghiglione caused Sulzberger to hide his face in mock embarrassment by commenting that as a result of design changes over the years, "the Good Gray Lady ... has become .. .a 'Sex and the City' siren."

The discussion quickly turned serious with questions about the Jayson Blair scandal and the fabricator's soon-to-be-published book, "Burning Down My Masters' House."

"The first thing I would say is caveat emptor, right? You know what you're getting when you read this book," said Sulzberger, who said he had not seen it.

He said Blair's many fabrications and his plagiarism were allowed to go unchecked because of a history of poor newsroom management practices. He noted that when he himself was made a metro editor he suddenly took charge of 75 reporters -- without a single day of management training.

"When you have 1,200 men and women, which is what The New York Times has in the newsroom, management suddenly becomes not a wanna-have, it's a must-have," he said. "It's not a matter of being a manager against being a journalist -- you've got to be both."

There was almost -- but not quite -- a scoop in Sulzberger's talk. As he was illustrating how the Times considers both the economic and journalism potential of a new item or section, he began to say that Executive Editor Bill Keller "wants to do something that will clearly have no economic payoff and -- well, I'm not going to tell you."