On May 7, 2007, the company announced that its web information service was acquiring (formerly ) a Web site that compiles reviews of consumer products, for $33 million in cash. The company announced that it had finalized the sale of its Broadcast Media Group on May 7, 2007, for "approximately $575 million".
The New York Times reported on January 4, 2007, that the company had reached an agreement to sell all nine local television stations to the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, which then created a holding company for the stations, Local TV LLC. The company announced on September 12, 2006, its decision to sell its Broadcast Media Group, consisting of "nine network-affiliated television stations, their related Web sites and the digital operating center". The Times, on August 25, 2006, acquired Baseline StudioSystems, an online database and research service on the film and television industries for US$35 million. In 2005, the company reported revenues of US$3.4 billion to its investors. On March 18, 2005, the company acquired, an online provider of consumer information, for US$410 million. The company completed its purchase of The Washington Post 's 50 percent interest in the International Herald Tribune ( IHT) for US$65 million on January 1, 2003, becoming the sole owner. In 1996, it expanded upon its broadcasting by purchasing Palmer Communications, owners of WHO-DT in Des Moines and KFOR in Oklahoma City.
The company moved into the cable channel industry, purchasing a 40% interest in the Popcorn Channel, a theatrical movie preview and local movie times, in November 1994.
The first edition of the newspaper The New York Times, published on September 18, 1851, stated: "We publish today the first issue of the New-York Daily Times, and we intend to issue it every morning (Sundays excepted) for an indefinite number of years to come." That makes it tougher for people like me who grew up in a country where French is an official language, but it's fairer for everyone else.The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. Modern puzzles like today's reflect modern America, relying more on Spanish language and Mexican culture. You also had to know some French, the International Language of Diplomacy, in case you ever needed to negotiate a treaty or sentence a war criminal. The previous NYT crossword editor, Eugene Maleska, targeted solvers who had, what was known at the time as a "classical liberal education." You had to know your Byron, Shelley, and Keats, Norman Rockwell and the Norman Invasion of 1066, and world geography. The clue could be "state somewhere in the middle of the U.S." or, since it's a Friday, " place somewhere in the middle" but that would deny you the joy of feeling smug next time a geographic center question comes up at Trivia Night. You make educated guesses based on other information you collect - how many letters, what letters you already have with what level of confidence, etc. You don't have to calculate the geographic center of mass, let alone show your work. Part of the joy of crosswords is that you learn something new or, even better, dredge up some factoid you'd forgotten.
It wants the "Home of the continental U.S.'s geographic center" where we must somehow believe that Alaska isn't part of a continent, so we push down to Lebanon, KANSAS, and that's our answer. If you drive out to Belle Fourche, South Dakota this weekend (and why wouldn't you?) you'll encounter a cairn with a hand-written sign declaring it the Center of the Nation. A cool case study for evolving editorial and construction tastes. Since 2019, six of the ten (and now seven of the eleven) 62-worders have done so. Twenty-seven 62-worders appeared before Patrick Berry's Novempuzzle became the first to use four staircase block sets (without any adjacent blocks). The puzzle came in at 62 words, and my use of the staircases led me back to the XWord Info list of low-word-count puzzles to see how common the staircase approach has been for similar puzzles. On this one, at least, the staircases made all the difference in achieving rigid construction goals while keeping the fill (hopefully) lively and fresh. I imagine a statistician could do a deep-dive analysis of exactly how much the format aids in puzzle construction. This grid is the first time I've used staircases for themeless construction, and it felt like a cheat code.
I tried various approaches that would also keep the block count low before finally trying the four six-block staircases that made it to the final version. As a newbie trying to break into the themeless rotation, I hoped that combination would set the puzzle apart. When I started work on this puzzle, I wanted to keep the word count low, place crossing stacks in the center, and maintain 90-degree rotational symmetry.