Ochs, Adolph Simon

Ochs, Adolph Simon

Ochs, Adolph Simon (ŏks), 1858–1935, American newspaper publisher, b. Cincinnati. Starting as a newsboy in Knoxville, Tenn., he became a printer's apprentice, compositor, and, in 1878, publisher of the Chattanooga Times. In 1896 he acquired the then failing New York Times and made it one of the greatest newspapers in the world. He also controlled the Philadelphia Times and the Philadelphia Public Ledger, which he merged and in 1913 sold to Cyrus H. K. Curtis. Unlike the sensational journalists of his day, Ochs stressed nonpartisan, almost clinical news reporting. From 1900 until his death he was a member of the executive committee and a director of the Associated Press.

Bibliography

See G. W. Johnson, An Honorable Titan (1946, repr. 1970); S. Tift and A. Jones, The Trust (1999).

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Ochs, Adolph Simon

(1858–1935) publisher; born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He bought the Chattanooga Times in 1878 and the New York Times in 1896, lifting the latter from bankruptcy to become a leading U.S. newspaper.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.