Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. will retire as chairman and a member of the New York Times Co's board by the end of December, the newspaper publisher said on Wednesday.
Sulzberger Jr, 69, who joined the newspaper in 1978 as a correspondent, will be replaced as chairman by his son, A.G. Sulzberger, 40, The Times publisher since 2018.
In his four-decade long tenure, Sulzberger Jr., who has been chairman of the board since 1997, spearheaded the transformation of the newspaper into a digital media company. He took the newspaper online in 1996.
Sulzberger Jr. became the Times' publisher in 1992 and it won 61 Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership, a record for any publisher or news organization.
He will assume the title chairman emeritus, the company said.
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. will retire as chairman and a member of the New York Times Co's board by the end of December
A.G. Sulzberger, a fifth-generation member of the family, will take over from his father as chairman
In a statement to the Times, Sulzberger Jr. said: 'Serving this essential institution and working alongside so many gifted journalists over the years has been the privilege of my life
'There's an old saying, 'Laurels are nice to wear, but never to rest upon.' I know A.G. will not rest in his drive to empower our journalists and expand the scope of The Times's ambitions.
'And with a dynamic new C.E.O. and the best executive editor in the business, I depart knowing the best is yet to come.'
The Sulzberger family bought the Times, known as 'The Gray Lady', in 1896.
A.G. Sulzberger, a fifth-generation member of the family, worked as a reporter at The Providence Journal and The Oregonian before joining The Times' metro desk in 2009.
