The New York Times has four years on Michigan State University. For publisher A.G. Sulzberger, that was enough to claim the privileges of an older sibling.
“So, in the spirit of an annoying older sibling, I’m going to offer some advice that you never asked for,” he told an MSU audience on Tuesday, Sept. 29. In the tradition of younger siblings, he added, they were welcome to challenge it afterward.
The family resemblance, however, went beyond founding dates in the mid-1800s (1851 and 1855, respectively). A newspaper and a public university both help people understand the world. Both depend on the freedom to ask difficult questions. And both face a challenge familiar to institutions with long histories: how to change enough to remain useful while protecting the principles that make them worth preserving.
That question anchored Sulzberger’s message at Wharton Center’s Pasant Theatre during the second event in MSU’s Presidential Speaker Series, which launched earlier this year. The series brings leading thinkers and practitioners to MSU for conversations on consequential issues that shape the world. His lecture, “Lessons on Stewardship from America’s Paper of Record,” mixed a captivating history of the Gray Lady, as the Times is known, with a smattering of insider anecdotes: bold decisions, business reversals and even a story about a toothbrush carried in case of imprisonment.
There was room for Wordle, too.
For anyone who thought they had come to see “the Wordle guy,” Sulzberger assured them they were in the right room, but his subject would be the game’s parent company, which, he noted, was also in the news business.
A shared instinct to ask why
Introducing Sulzberger, President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., placed journalism and higher education on common ground: a conviction that people make better decisions when they have access to reliable information and the freedom to examine it.
MSU’s founding extended that opportunity to everyday people, he said, with benefits reaching beyond individual graduates to their families and communities. The university’s responsibility includes preparing students to question assumptions, listen carefully and participate thoughtfully in civic life.
“As a researcher and teacher, there’s nothing more important to me than curiosity and the tradition of academic freedom that is the foundation of scholarship,” Guskiewicz said.
He illustrated that instinct with a story about a journalist who once asked his favorite word.
“Why,” he answered.
The journalist began explaining why she wanted to know. Guskiewicz clarified: “Why” was the word.
Sulzberger continued the thread, saying the introduction had persuaded him that MSU and the Times shared considerable DNA — and that his favorite word should probably be “why,” too.
The exchange underscored what Guskiewicz describes as the purpose for the speaker series: encouraging intellectual curiosity and a willingness to engage sincerely with unfamiliar perspectives. For a university preparing students to navigate a rapidly changing information environment, those habits are crucial.
Keeping the mission through upheaval
Sulzberger’s account of the Times’ recent history made clear that longevity offers little protection from disruption.
In 2004, the company was in jeopardy. Revenues were plummeting as the internet dismantled the newspaper industry’s business model.
Recovery required difficult choices. Sulzberger described how his father sold off treasured assets, including a stake in the Boston Red Sox, while preserving newsroom staffing. The wager was that the company’s best chance of survival was providing journalism worth paying for.
Today, Sulzberger said, the Times has more than 13 million paying subscribers.
He traced that approach to his great-great-grandfather, Adolph Ochs, who bought the struggling newspaper in 1896. Ochs expanded its journalism while cutting the price of a copy from 3 cents to a penny, betting that a better paper would attract more readers.
He also knew how to attract attention. Sulzberger reminded the audience that Times Square’s name and the iconic New Year’s Eve ball drop were both created by Ochs to promote his paper.
But the family’s central obligation, he said, was service to the institution. “A steward must have the humility to recognize that a great institution is bigger than any single person.”
What values cost
Sulzberger distinguished between the value an institution provides and the values that guide its decisions. At the Times, the first means useful, rigorous journalism. The second includes independence, integrity and public service.
The commitments become meaningful when keeping them carries a cost.
When his grandfather, Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger, decided to publish the Pentagon Papers, he faced the real possibility of imprisonment. For days afterward, his grandson recalled, Punch carried a toothbrush in his pocket, expecting he might be taken to jail.
Other reporting risked lost advertisers, canceled subscriptions or retaliation from governments. Sulzberger also acknowledged mistakes in the newspaper’s coverage and argued that examining its own failures was part of its obligation to readers.
“Each hard choice in favor of value and values is a deposit that strengthens the bond of reader trust,” he said.
Preparing the next stewards
Preserving a mission doesn’t mean you can’t evolve, Sulzberger said.
The Times now reaches readers through podcasts, video and apps, including a cooking collection of 25,000 recipes. It uses artificial intelligence to help reporters examine large datasets and to create audio versions of articles.
In closing remarks, College of Communication Arts and Sciences Dean Heidi Hennink-Kaminski connected the day’s conversations to the students preparing to enter the profession, some of whom Sulzberger and his colleagues met with earlier in the day.
“Seek the truth, help people understand the world and hold the powerful to account,” she said.
Sulzberger’s own closing advice reached beyond future journalists. The “older sibling’s” lesson was for anyone preparing to take responsibility for something that should outlast them.
“When you build, build something of value. When you face hard choices, face them with considered values. And when you lead, lead in the spirit of stewardship.”
Watch a recording of the complete event on YouTube.
