NEW YORK, Feb. 17 -- The New York Times Company announced today that its Board of Directors nominated David E. Liddle, a partner with U.S. Venture Partners and retired chairman of Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto, Calif., and Jacqueline H. Dryfoos, a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City, to stand for election as directors at its Annual Meeting of Shareholders on April 27. A current director, Judith P. Sulzberger, is retiring.

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of the board, said: "We are delighted to have two exceptionally strong candidates nominated to the Board. Each has a particular focus on the future. David has spent his career developing technologies for interaction and communication between people and computers, in activities spanning research, development, management and entrepreneurship. He has a great ability to articulate technology trends and directions, which is instrumental to the Company's strategy. Jackie, the eldest of the Ochs-Sulzberger cousins in my generation, will be the first family member to join the Board who doesn't work for the Company. She brings a deep understanding of The Times, its role and the importance of renewal to keep The Times vital for the future. Each candidate will add important expertise and experience to the Board."

Dr. Liddle, 55, joined U.S. Venture Partners after retiring from Interval Research on January 1 of this year. U.S. Venture Partners is a leading Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that specializes in building companies in digital communications/networking, eCommerce and Internet-related businesses, semiconductors and eHealth. Liddle co- founded Interval Research Corporation in 1992 with Paul Allen, co-founder of Micro-soft Corp. Interval Research Corporation is a Silicon Valley-based laboratory and incubator for new businesses focusing on broadband applications and services, consumer devices, interaction design and advanced technologies. Dr. Liddle is also a consulting professor of Computer Science at Stanford University.

Prior to co-founding Interval, he founded Metaphor Computer Systems in 1982 and served as its president and CEO. The company was acquired by IBM in 1991 when he was named vice president, New Systems Business Development, Personal Systems. Before that, from 1972-1982, he held various R&D and management positions at Xerox Corporation and at its Palo Alto Research Center, a hotbed of computer innovation in the 1970s. While there, he was vice president and general manager, Office Systems Division.

Liddle has served as a director at Sybase, Broderbund Software, Borland International, Starwave Corp. and Ticketmaster Group, as well as numerous private companies, and as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute, a research and education center focused on pursuing emerging science.

He earned a B.S. in electrical engineering at the University of Michigan in 1967 and a Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Toledo in 1972. For his contributions to human-computer interaction design, he has been named a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art in London, an exclusively postgraduate university of art and design.

Ms. Dryfoos, 56, has been in private practice as a psychotherapist since 1980. She worked as a psychiatric social worker for the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services from 1975 to 1982. Previously, she was a high school social studies teacher and counselor.

She serves on the Boards of the Council on the Environment of New York City and the Kenyon Review, an international literary journal. Ms. Dryfoos earned a B.A. from Barnard College in 1965; an M.A. from Teacher's College, Columbia University in 1966 ; an M.S. from Columbia University School of Social Work in 1975 and a Certificate in Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy from the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy.

She is the daughter of Marian S. Heiskell and the late Orvil E. Dryfoos, who was publisher of The Times from 1961-1963. She is the cousin of Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and Michael Golden, vice chairman.

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) is a diversified media company including newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations, and electronic information and publishing. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment. The Company, which had 1999 revenues of $3.1 billion, publishes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and 22 other newspapers; publishes three magazines, including Golf Digest; and operates eight network-affiliated television stations and two New York City radio stations. It also operates news, photo and graphics services as well as news and feature syndicates. A division of the Company, Times Company Digital, operates Internet properties such as nytimes.com, boston.com and winetoday.com. The Company holds interests in one newsprint mill, one supercalendered paper mill and the International Herald Tribune S.A.S.

Contact: Nancy Nielsen, 212-556-7078; email: nielsen@nytimes.com. This release may be downloaded from http://www.prnewswire.com.