The New York Times published its first edition
On this day · 18 September 1851
On September 18, 1851, a one-cent paper called the New-York Daily Times promised dignified, trustworthy journalism in a sensational age.
On September 18, 1851, the first issue of the New-York Daily Times rolled off the press in lower Manhattan, priced at a single penny. Its founders, the journalist Henry Jarvis Raymond and the former banker George Jones, had formed their company only weeks earlier, in August 1851.
What set the paper apart was its stated mission: clean, dignified, trustworthy reporting in an era crowded with sensational rivals. The four-page debut carried political news, business, foreign dispatches, and cultural reviews, betting that accuracy could sell as well as scandal.
The name shortened to The New-York Times in 1857, and the hyphen was dropped in 1896.
From that modest basement start, the paper grew into one of the world’s most influential newspapers, its early promise of restraint hardening into a reputation for record. The first edition was, in every sense, a statement of intent that the Times has spent more than 170 years defending.
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