All the news that’s fit to print.

The phrase is best known as the long-running slogan of The New York Times, adopted under publisher Adolph S. Ochs after he acquired the paper in 1896 and sought to distinguish it from the sensational “yellow journalism” of the era. The motto appeared prominently in the paper’s masthead and functioned as a public statement of editorial standards: a commitment to publish news judged important and reliable rather than lurid or fabricated stories designed mainly to sell copies. In the competitive New York newspaper market of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the line helped brand the Times as sober, authoritative, and selective in what it chose to print.

“All the news that’s fit to print” asserts that journalism should be guided by judgment and ethics, not merely by novelty or shock value. The key word is “fit”: it implies a standard of suitability—accuracy, significance, and propriety—by which information is filtered before publication. As a slogan, it also performs a rhetorical double move: it promises comprehensiveness (“all the news”) while justifying selectivity (“that’s fit”). The line has endured partly because it invites debate about who decides what is “fit,” making it both a declaration of principle and a reminder of the power (and responsibility) inherent in editorial gatekeeping.

All the News That’s Fit to Print.