New York Times

In several respects, the New York Times ranks as the best or near-best newspaper in the United States. Certainly the biggest in total operations among American elite papers, it places, with 854, 000 copies daily, along with the New York News and the Los Angeles Times, among the nation's top three in circulation. Although in recent years it has cut down on full texts of speeches and documents, the Times does publish the total transcripts of most presidential press conferences and thus comes closest of all American dailies to being a newspaper of record.

In a nation where no true national daily flourishes, the prestigious New York Times comes closest to the claim being nationally read. A 1963 West Coast edition failed because most American newspaper advertising is local and out-of-state circulation does not seem to attract advertisers. But, despite that and the paper's pre-occupation with the populous metropolitan East Coast, over one-fourth of its readers live more than 100 miles from New York. The Times manages to have readers in 10, 651 towns in every state and in nearly all countries. Because of its thorough­ness, it is highly respected in the nation's colleges and universities, found in practically every academic library and widely read by college presidents, professors and students. Its thick Sunday edition sometimes containing 400 pages and weighing four pounds, finds its way into pace-setting homes across the face of the nation, with at least one-third of the copies going outside New York City. The paper's prestigious leadership audience around the world has long helped to make it not only a great American daily, but also a key member of the world's elite press.

Much of the Times' prestige rests on its excellent in-depth coverage - the best in the nation - of national and international issues and political events. For an important event, its accurate and comprehensive coverage may extend to several pages, include all the main texts and offer numerous sidebar stories. The Times' long-established policy of actively encouraging probing reporters and investigative digging leads to such thoroughness. The paper takes itself seriously and has a right to the pride, almost arrogance, it sometimes exhibits.

The quality and completeness of the Times' international coverage is directly traceable to eyewitness reporting by its large foreign staff. Thirty-two full-time correspondents work out of 23 bureaus located in the world's strategic centers and another 25 part-timers complete the paper's world-wide coverage network. In addition, the New York Times may be the only newspaper to take all five major international wire services - AP, UPI, Reuters and AFP.

Although the arch-rival Washington Post has outshone the Times in thorough coverage of Washington politics on several occasions in recent years, generally speaking the Times still has better total national coverage.

While most commentators speak of the Times' size, thoroughness and complete coverage, there is no doubt that the general quality of its journalism ranks with the world's best. While it is not as unpretentiously interesting in its prose as the London Times, not as well documented as Le Monde and not as scholarly and serious as Switzerland's Neue Zurcher Zeitung, it does go further in combining the worthy characteristics of all these great papers than any other daily.

EXERCISES