NEW YORK, NY May 21 (DPI) – The New York Times produced a brief oral history this week of soon-to-be-history Time Inc, less a tribute than a parting shot at the one-time iconic name in news publishing.

Many of the one- and two-paragraph quotes from former employees of Time Inc. – the writers, editors and staffers of Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated – focused largely on the white-male-dominated “Mad Men” culture at the magazines, especially in the early years. Many of the quotes and the overall narrative suggested Time Inc. and its titles deserved its fate because of its apparently misogynistic and racist culture – as if the digital age, which has killed off its share of print publications, had nothing to do with it.

Time Inc. was recently purchased by Meredith Corp. of Des Moines, Iowa, and it is in the process of selling off some of its titles. The NYT article carried the headline: “The Last Days of Time Inc.: An Oral History of How the Pre-eminent Media Organization of the 20th Century Ended Up on the Scrap Heap.”

Time, of course, was founded in the 1920s by Henry Luce, who became a larger-than-life figure in American publishing. His publications – particularly Time and Life – were powerful opinion shapers in post-war America.

But the NYT focused mostly on the lifestyle aspects of working at the company. Even former editor and prominent author Walter Isaacson weighed in: “There were gentlemen writers and editors and women researchers who stayed up late and often had affairs. People just stayed in the office and would make drinks, or people would go out to long dinners. You felt like you were in some movie version of an elegant magazine.”

Given than The New York Times itself has had its own near death experiences in recent years, it was a bit unseemly that it would treat Time Inc.’s demise so dismissively. Said one: “The NY Times occupied that elite publishing circle with Time Inc. for many years – it too could wind up on the scrap heap.”