The New York Times
Nytimes.com. First edition of the New York Daily Times, published on Sep. 18, 1851 When Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones founded the New York Daily Times in 1851, their ambition wasn’t to dominate American journalism—it was to offer an alternative to the sensationalist tabloids dominating the newsstands. Priced at just one cent, the paper aimed to bring credible, fact-based reporting to the masses without pandering to sensationalism . Raymond, a former New York Tribune journalist and political ally of Abraham Lincoln , envisioned a publication that served public interests through facts, clarity, and editorial restraint. At the time, journalism was populated with partisan newspapers tied to political parties and private interests. The Times entered this era as a “ penny paper ,” emphasizing affordability and accessibility for working-class readers in a rapidly industrializing country. Though it sought mass circulation, the Times carefully avoided th...