ABSTRACT
When Athenian warriors pushed back the Persian invaders at Marathon in 490 B.C., the victory left Athens vulnerable to a sea attack. From the battlefield, they chose their best runner to report the news and warn the city. If ever there was an industry custom-built for family ownership, it was the newspaper business. People have always needed independent, unbiased news reporting of high integrity. That requirement has consistently been met by family owners who invested in the print journalism business for the long term. The Washington Post was a local newspaper with a national reach, thanks to its location in the US Capitol and expertise in political reporting. The New York Times had long been considered the newspaper of record in the US It supported a legendary international news gathering operation that appealed to well-educated subscribers and printed papers nationwide. Events at the New York Times unfolded differently.
