New York Times business and financial editors have been among the leaders in business journalism for the past century.
For example, Alexander Noyes was one of the few business journalists in the 1920s who warned readers about the dangers of the unsustainable growth in the stock market before the October 1929 crash that led to the Great Depression.
Jack Forrest, his successor, was featured in a house ad for the paper shown at the right from the 1950s that promoted the paper’s coverage of “trade and industry” and noted that the business desk had a staff of 40 at the time. And John Lee led a redesign of the section that created the first standalone business news section of any metropolitan daily in the country in 1978.
Here is Talking Biz News’ research on the business and financial editors of the Times in the past 90 years:
- Alexander Dana Noyes: finance editor from 1920 to 1945, when he died. Before that, he was finance editor of the New York Evening Post.
- John G. (Jack) Forrest: finance editor from 1945 to 1952. Then editor of a combined financial news and business news department from 1952 to 1963. Died in 1982.
- Tom Mullaney: 1963 to 1976. Wrote “The Economic Scene” column even after stepping down.
- John Lee: 1976 to 1985. Died in early 2009.
- Frederick Andrews: 1985 to 1992.
- William Stockton: 1992 to 1994.
- John Geddes: 1994 to 1997.
- Glenn Kramon: 1997 to 2004.
- Lawrence Ingrassia: 2004 to current.
It should also be noted that Burton Crane from 1937 to 1963 wrote an influential column for the department, and Leonard Silk from 1970 to 1992 also wrote an influential column.
