New York Times Company records

Journalist, editor, and newspaper executive Sydney Gruson (1916-1998) had a long and influential career at The New York Times. Starting as a reporter in Europe during World War II, Gruson rose to the rank of executive vice president and was instrumental in expanding The Times' corporate holdings throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Gruson was born in Dublin, Ireland, and as a young boy, emigrated with his family to Toronto, Canada. He worked as a writer for the Canadian Press Agency from 1932 until 1944, when he joined The New York Times as a war reporter based in London. For the next 20 years, Gruson covered affairs in Eastern Europe, Central America, and the Middle East as a foreign correspondent. Managing Editor Clifton Daniel appointed him chief of the London bureau in 1963, and from 1965 to 1966, Gruson was put in charge of the paper's international coverage as foreign editor. Next he was promoted to editor and chief executive officer of the international edition until that paper merged with The Washington Post's Paris-based paper to become The International Herald Tribune. Gruson left The Times briefly in 1968 to serve as associate publisher of Newsday, but was hired back as the special assistant to Times Publisher and President Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, in 1969. Over the next 17 years, Gruson was a close advisor and prominent spokesperson for Sulzberger and the paper. He played a key role as an intermediary between the corporate and news sides of the paper's operations, and advised the publisher on editorial matters and corporate development. He rose through several executive positions, from vice president (1970), to senior vice president (1972), to executive vice president (1973), and oversaw the company's affiliated properties. Gruson was an active proponent of diversifying The New York Times Company's properties, and was a driving force behind the purchase of several newspaper and magazine publications, as well as television and radio assets. Gruson was elected a member and vice chairman of the board of directors in 1979; he retired from The Times December 1986.

Gruson married journalist Flora Lewis in 1945 and married Marit Gentele in 1974. He died in Manhattan in 1998.

Pace, Eric. Sydney Gruson, 81, Correspondent, Editor and Executive for The New York Times, Dies. The New York Times, March 9, 1998.

Talese, Gay. The Kingdom and the Power. New York: Ivy Books, 1966.

From the guide to the New York Times Company records. Sydney Gruson papers, 1969-1988, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.)