The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism

A sweeping behind-the-scenes look at the last four turbulent decades of “the paper of record,” The New York Times, as it confronted world-changing events, internal scandals, and faced the existential threat of the internet

For over a century, the newspaper has been considered an iconic institution, one whose history is intertwined with the stories it tells—a paper you had to read if you wanted to stay informed of happenings around the globe.

In The Times, Adam Nagourney, who’s worked at The New York Times since 1996, examines the last four decades of the newspaper’s history, through the final years of Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger’s reign to the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Nagourney recounts the paper’s triumphs—the coverage of September 11, the explosion of the U.S. Challenger, the scandal of a New York governor snared in a prostitution case—as well as failures that threatened the paper’s standing and reputation, including the discredited coverage of the war in Iraq, the resignation of Judith Miller, the plagiarism scandal of Jayson Blair, and the high-profile ouster of two of its executive editors.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and the paper’s archives, The Times is an inside look at the essential years that shaped The New York Times. Nagourney paints a vivid picture of a divided newsroom, fraught with tension as it struggled to move into the digital age, while confronting its scandals, shortcomings, and swelling criticism from conservatives as well as many of its own readers. Along the way we meet the memorable personalities—Abe Rosenthal, Max Frankel, Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, Dean Baquet, and many more—who shaped The Times as we know it today, and see the disagreements between the newsroom and the business operations side, the fight between old and new media, the tension between editors who refuse to let go of traditional print and a young generation of reporters who are eager to embrace technology and move into the digital age.

Immersive and meticulously researched, filled with powerful stories of the rise and fall of the men and women who ran the most important newspaper in the nation, The Times is a definitive account of the most pivotal years in New York Times history.