The Press: Fat Cat, Thin Margin

Ever since 1896, when the late Adolph S. Ochs bought a decrepit Manhattan daily named the New York Times for $75,000, the paper has turned a profit every year, though not what one might expect from the fattest, most prestigious newspaper in the land. Sometimes the paper's profit margin has been paper thin: as little as $61,000 in 1954—on a gross income of $1,232.000. Last week Publisher Orvil E. Dryfoos issued the Times's 1961 annual report. As daily circulation rose to a record 713,514 and Sunday circulation to a record 1,384,200, the Times sold $100 million worth of ads. On gross...