A December-January 2005 column on how the New York Times resuscitated itself from being a financial basketcase in the mid-1970s to being the success it is today.

The recipe? Sometimes, you improve a soup by adding meat and tomatoes, not by watering down the broth.

Columnist John Morton explains, talking about some fateful meetings between the (boo! hiss!) business staff and the (yaaah!!) newsroom:

The Times then was a two-section paper, and Mattson (note: Walter Mattson, a senior vice-president at the paper) had been promoting the idea of a four-section paper, possibly with separate business, metropolitan and sports sections following the first section's national and international news. Rosenthal had resisted this, fearing the Times' traditional character would suffer, but the paper's dwindling finances convinced him otherwise.

Still, Rosenthal insisted that the new sections would require spending more on space and staff if they were to become "must reading." In a much-quoted comment, he said, "When a newspaper like ours needs help in difficult times, the best way to nourish it is not by watering the soup but by enriching it with more meat and tomatoes." Mattson agreed.

As the alliance with the business side developed, it became fractious at one point when the advertising department pressed for a daily style section with emphasis on fashion. The editors resisted, successfully arguing that this section should change its focus daily.

Thus the modern New York Times unfolded. The first new section, Weekend, triumphed, eventually boosting Friday circulation by 35,000, with significant advertising gains. Next came The Living Section, boosting Wednesday circulation by 32,000. Later came The Home Section on Thursday, Sports Monday and Science Times on Tuesday. In a little more than three years, the Times had been transformed from barely profitable into a thriving newspaper.

In 1975, the Times had a perilously low operating profit margin of 1.9 percent. By 1979, the operating margin had improved to 7.0 percent. Profitability continued to improve in ensuing years, reaching the mid- to high teens. These still are modest margins compared with other newspaper companies, but other newspapers do not match the Times' spending on domestic and foreign staffs. The soup, indeed, is rich.