On this day in New York · September 18, 1851

The Times Prints Its First Issue

A one-cent, four-page paper came out of a basement on Nassau Street promising to be conservative about some things and radical about everything else, and it never stopped printing.

The facts

First issue: Thursday, September 18, 1851
Founders: Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, both alumni of Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune
First office: A basement at 113 Nassau Street, Lower Manhattan
Early growth: 10,000 copies in circulation by the ninth issue; renamed The New-York Times in 1857

On September 18, 1851, Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones put out the first edition of the New-York Daily Times, a four-page sheet printed from a basement office at 113 Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan. Both men had learned the trade at Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune before striking out on their own, forming Raymond, Jones & Company that August. Raymond, who became the paper's editor, pitched it as an alternative to the shouting-match journalism of the day, a paper that would judge people and institutions on their merits rather than their party. New Yorkers bought in fast: by its ninth issue the paper was already claiming ten thousand copies in circulation. It shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857 and dropped the hyphen for good in 1896.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

will canvass freely the character and pretensions of Public Men, the merits and demerits of all administrations of Government, National, State and Municipal, and the worth of all institutions, principles, habits and professions

the New-York Daily Times' pre-publication prospectus, 1851
Source: Wikipedia
We shall be Conservative, in all cases where we think Conservatism essential to the public good;, and we shall be Radical in everything which may seem to us to require radical treatment and radical reform.

the New-York Daily Times' first-issue editorial statement, September 18, 1851
Source: Historic Newspapers

Why it still matters

That basement paper on Nassau Street is the same masthead still landing on New Yorkers' phones every morning, and its founding promise to judge power on the merits, not the party, is still the argument every newsroom in this city is having with itself.

Sources

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