to 9950-1800-455-9678. Just go ahead and make the call.
Thank you for supporting the Friends of WOSU. If you're unable to call, please make out your generous check and send it to the Friends of WOSU, Department 0935, Columbus, Ohio 43271.
Celebrate the American Masters of Rock and Roll with the hottest rockers then and now roll out the legacy of Sun Records. The most famous recording studio in the world. What a story. It's feel-good music. Sun Records was the beginning of rock and roll rebellion. Get ready for some good rocking tonight on American Masters. Tomorrow night at 8:00 on WOSU TV 34.
This is the home of The New York Times on West 43rd Street in New York City. Inside is the greatest newspaper in the world. It is celebrating its 150th birthday. It has been owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family since 1896. The chairman of the board of the company and the publisher of the newspaper is 50-year-old Arthur Sulzberger.
This is the boardroom. This is part of the history of this place because—
This is the publisher's original office. When Adolph Ochs built this building, this was his office. His desk was on that end of the room. And when we became a public company, we turned it into our boardroom.
You are moving into another building. What happens to this great room?
Well, we may take it with us. We'll certainly take the spirit of it with us because tradition is a critical part of who we are. It's never going to define what we will be. But you've got to know who you are if you're going to be the best you can be. So, we can't let go of our past, even though we can't allow it to stop us from changing and adapting and moving on. That's a fun balance, a hard balance sometimes. Many institutions become too enamored of all their successes and say, "Well, we're perfect. Now, let's stop." We can't do that. We won't do that.
You have a lot of power. What's the most important advice you know about using power?
Every time you use it, you're losing a part of it.
Because you have to make decisions.
No, I think the power you have, the power I feel I have, is to empower others. I can't make decisions for the President of the United States or for the housewife in Illinois who's going to vote for the President of the United States. What I can do is bring to them and to thousands and millions in need of others the facts I think are important for them to understand as they make those decisions. So, externally, my power is the power to inform, the power to make decisions about what is important in the world, what isn't important in the world. In that regard, you're right. I agree with you. Internally, my power is to allow all those people who make The New York Times Company so great, make them feel they have the authority they need and that they have the resources they need to do the best possible job in journalism. And that's what I think The New York Times Company stands for.
We're going to move now and sit down over here and have a conversation about The New York Times, 150 years since it was founded. And we'll talk about that history and the challenge of a great newspaper after September 11th. Stay with us.
Charlie Rose is made possible by these funders. And by Bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide.
Tonight, a special edition of Charlie Rose. After 150 years, The New York Times is what?
The New York Times is a truly national newspaper with an international reach thanks to the internet that is performing, in my judgment, at the top of its journalistic game.
The greatest newspaper in the world.
Yes, I do. No more so than over the last 2 and 1/2 months since September 11th, where I think we have taken a tragedy and probably the story of our generation and made it our own, helped to redefine again what it means to be the newspaper of record.
How much of it is because this is a family-controlled newspaper?
I think what the family brings to it is constancy of purpose and a sense that even in these difficult economic times—and we are in the biggest year-to-year advertising drop since 1938, so this story comes at a particularly difficult time for newspapers or for any media—but even given that, we know our purpose. We know our reason for being, and we know that when you have something as monumental as this, when our nation is under assault, when our people are under attack, we will do everything we can and maybe just a little bit more to ensure that our news report reflects all of the dimensions that we can put into this story. Is that because of the family? I'm not sure I can say that, but does it help? Absolutely. When our board of directors meets in this room we're talking to each other in right now, they signed on to a company with those values. Yes, we're going to enhance shareholder value. Yes, we're going to be a highly profitable business. But we are fundamentally committed to performing our journalistic duty, and they know that. And that helps.
Two things about that. One, what's the public trust and what's the family—how does the family view that?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the public trust.
Well, what's the mission?
The mission of The New York Times Company is to create, collect, and distribute high-quality news, information, and entertainment. And I can say that so quickly because that is our mission. It is our mission statement. And we have it written down and we carry it with us. This is the mission statement of The New York Times newspaper, and this is the mission statement of The New York Times Company and our core purpose. And you will see in there most prominently journalism reflected.
Interesting about this as we hit all cylinders of what I want to talk about in this conversation. You didn't say newspaper. The New York Times is an institution that creates and collects and distributes high-quality news, information, and entertainment without reference to mode.
