OCHS, ADOLPH SIMON (1858-1935), American news paper publisher, was born in Cincinnati, 0., on March 12, 1858, of well educated Jewish parents who had emigrated in their youth to the United States from Bavaria. The father, Julius Ochs, was an officer of the United States forces in the Mexican War of 1848, and the Civil War, 1861-65. In 1865 the family settled in Knox ville, Tenn., where Adolph while still a boy attending primary schools delivered newspapers. At the age of 14, he became a printer's devil on the Knoxville Chronicle. In 1875-76 he was em ployed as a compositor by tho Louisville Kentucky Courier Jour nal. In 1877 he assisted in establishing the Chattanooga Dis patch, and in 1878, at the age of 20, with little or no capital, he gained control of the Chattanooga Times, at that time a decrepit newspaper. Assuming at the same time the duties of publisher, editor and business manager, he soon placed the Chattanooga Times on a firm basis, and brought it to a leading position among newspapers throughout the South.
In 1896 he acquired the controlling ownership of the New York Times, which had long been one of the leading newspapers in the United States, but was then in financial difficulties after 3o years of prosperity. Mr. Ochs then formed the New York Times Company. With a ripe experience in all departments of news paper making, he steadily strengthened the paper's journalistic and financial position, and resuscitated it from a bankrupt news paper with less than 10,000 bona fide circulation, to a newspaper with national reputation, a net paid sale (1934) of 466,000 copies on weekdays and 730,000 on Sundays, and from 2,000,000 to 20, 000,000 agate lines of advertising annually. Times Square, New York, was named after the Times Building, which was erected in 1905.
Meantime, in 1901, Ochs became proprietor of the Philadelphia Times, which he merged with the Public Ledger and sold to Cyrus H. K. Curtis in 1912. He was a founder of the Southern Associ ated Press and later an organizer of the Publishers' Association of the City of New York. From 190o to his death in 1935 he was a director of the Associated Press.
The influence of Ochs upon newspaper publishing in the United States has been very marked and highly beneficial. Entering New York publishing when the so-called "yellow journalism" was at its height, and in competition with half a dozen of the richest and most powerful newspapers in America, he boldly adopted the slo gan, "All the News That's Fit To Print," and devoted his paper not to sensations, but to giving intelligent readers a daily news report, trustworthy, complete, non-partisan and decent.
In a few years Ochs made The Times the outstanding example of enterprise in news gathering and ultimately the most widely read newspaper in the United States. In its reporting of the news
The Times identified itself with pioneers and explorers in various fields—Marconi, Peary, Lindbergh, Byrd (North and South Pole and trans-Atlantic flights), Amundsen, Ellsworth, Scott, Shackle ton and others. In its expression of opinion, The Times was and remains essentially independent, its editorial position being best described by Ochs himself as intended "to reflect the best in formed thought of the country, honest in every line, more than courteous and fair to those who may sincerely differ from its views." Steadily withstanding the temptation to print a "comic" section and other features detached from the news of the day, Ochs was a pioneer in many newspaper innovations, among which were the introduction in newspapers of rotogravure printing of news pic tures, a book review supplement and an open forum for letters to the editor, with the widest latitude for the presentation of opin ions in conflict with the editorial views of The Times. He was also a pioneer in the adoption of standards to improve newspaper advertising typography, and of standards of advertising designed to exclude all false and misleading material.
Following these principles, he made The New York Times "the newspaper of record," publishing the only complete American newspaper index and printing an edition on rag paper for libraries, offices, institutions and those who preserve records. His interest in making accurate source material available to the public was shown in another manner when, with The New York Times Com pany, he underwrote in 1925, at a cost of over $500,000, the preparation of the manuscript of the Dictionary of American Biography by the Learned Societies of America.
In 1918 the trustees of Columbia University in New York awarded The Times the first Pulitzer Gold Medal in Journalism for Meritorious Public Service. In 1922 Ochs was made an hon orary Master of Arts by Yale University.
In subsequent years he received honorary doctorates from Columbia University, New York University, Dartmouth and Lincoln University.
He was also awarded the French Legion of Honour and in 1927 received the gold medal of the National Institute of Social Sci ences for his services in promoting and maintaining high stand ards of journalism.
No honour gratified Mr. Ochs, however, more than that which came to him in 1928.
In that year of 1928, the community in which he had made his humble start conferred on him the title of "Citizen Emeritus of Chattanooga." For the story of The New York Times see History of The New York Times by Elmer Davis (1921) and Seventy-fifth Anniversary Supplement of The New York Times, published September 18, 1926. For the history of the Chattanooga Times see Chattanooga Times Jubilee Issue, July 1, 1928.