Adolph Ochs was very close to financial ruin when he set out to buy the New York Times, which was losing $1,000 a day. The newspaper Ochs already owned, in Chattanooga, Tenn., was almost underwater, and his personal debts were threatening to sink him and the large extended family he supported. His plan was to save the paper and himself by breaking into the big city market. With brilliant personal salesmanship and no little bit of financial finagling, he finally won the backing he needed. On Aug. 19, 1896, he announced on the front page of his newly acquired newspaper that...
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