New York Times sets timeline in naming Sulzberger successor
NEW YORK - New York Times (NYT) publisher Arthur Sulzberger says a successor will be chosen within two years.
He said Monday in a "State of the Times" speech to employees that the board, senior management and family trustees would be involved in choosing a deputy publisher.
New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy sent a transcript of his speech to The Associated Press.
Sulzberger has been publisher since 1992, when he was 40. He said Monday that since "I've hit my mid-sixties, so it should come as no surprise that the task of choosing my successor has begun."
New York Magazine in August reported that Sulzberger's son, Arthur Gregg Sulzberger; his nephew David Perpich and Sam Dolnick, the son of his cousin, were in the running to succeed him.
"I can think of no stronger example of that commitment than the fact that six members of the fifth generation of the family work here. Each is actively engaged in initiatives that are tied to our future," Sulzberger said. Murphy said the company had no further comment.
The influential paper is controlled by the family through a special class of shares. Sulzberger replaced his father, and his great-grandfather took over the Times in 1896.
Like other newspapers, The New York Times Co. has suffered from the decline of print ads as readers migrate online. But the company has managed to grow its online circulation, and now has more than 1 million digital-only subscribers.
Shares of the company rose 3.1 percent to $13.69 in afternoon trading.