The New York Times

I carved out a measure of success for myself as an editor at some successful and prestigious daily newspapers and national business magazines, and that’s why I think I am a reasonably qualified judge of print-media competency.

As such, I choose the New York Times as America’s best print publication and suspect it is the world’s best. I’ve been reading it daily since the early nineteen-sixties. Its steady advancements to breadth and depth has been dazzling.

What I like most is the paper’s expertise in so many fields of endeavor. My guess is that anything can happen for any reason, anywhere on the planet, and the Times will have someone on the payroll who has knowledge, insight, and expertise on what happened, including who, when, where, and how.

A staff of experts on this or that has to be a good thing for any enterprise, not just publishing. There was a time when expertise was commonplace in big-city daily newspapers, when editors (rather than accountants, lawyers, bankers, and sales managers) made the editorial decisions.

There was a time when I felt much the same competency was on daily display at the Wall Street Journal, but under new ownership WSJ has become the Fox TV of print media. Old-guy editors like myself just cannot tolerate political slant in the news columns. That stuff belongs on the editorial page and the op-ed page and nowhere else. That tradition seems permanently intact at the Times. And so the paper just keeps getting better and better as the decades pass by.

As a wildly successful do-it-yourself portfolio manager, you do or will need to maintain at least passing knowledge of worldwide developments in business, economics, personal finances, politics, science, and technology. That’s what you’ll find in the New York Times. And more.

In my latest book (My America 1931-2031), I say more about publishing. If that thought interests you, just Google the words Gene Balliett in Amazon’s search box at Amazon.com.