Betsy Wade (1929-2020) was the first female copyeditor at The New York Times, where she helped prepare the reporting on the Pentagon Papers that won the Times the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. She worked with Homer Bigart and was his friend through the later phases of his career. In retirement, he gave her his clipping files to use in preparing a collection of his dispatches. Wade's career began at the Herald Tribune and Scripps-Howard; she headed the Times foreign copy desk in the seventies during the Vietnam War. She later wrote the Times's "Practical Traveler" column, the advice from which was published in the New York Times Practical Traveler Handbook.

Harrison E. Salisbury (1908-1993) was a longtime reporter and editor at The New York Times, as well as a prolific author. His books include American in Russia and The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. He notably reported from Communist China, Moscow following World War II, and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He was the 1955 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.