The rise has been swift. A reporter for the Oregonian in Portland until 2009, and now supreme chieftain of comment on the New York Times. But then Arthur Gregg Sulzberger (36) was already deputy publisher of the Times, reporting to Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Junior, publisher. His dad.
One day, of course, AGS will succeed Junior, just as he in turn succeeded AOS Senior, who inherited the job from AHS (Arthur Hays Sulzberger), who’d married into the Ochs family when it owned the Times. And there’s nothing like A and B shares (the B pile reserved for Sulzbergers) for keeping inheritances intact). Some cry “nepotism”. Does an accident of birth make young Arthur Gregg the man to guide Times opinions, let alone the paper’s future in a digital maelstrom? How do you square Times ideals – democracy, opportunity, freedom – with pass-the- parcel succession politics?
One answer is that family ownership at America’s greatest papers kept journalism safe for years, until chains such as Gannett bought up the news (and cut it back on some perennial profit spree). By those lights, the New York Times is lucky to have the Sulzberger connection, and may indeed be lucky twice over if Arthur Gregg can cut the mustard. But please don’t ask for a principled defence of sub-royal procedures here. High-standard nepotism is only good while it works.
