One only wishes that this energetic, well-paced book had been more reflective, somewhat less catty in its selected quotations and more generous in its assessments of Times personalities. Toward the end, the authors ask, ''What was it, in fact, that had allowed Adolph Ochs and his descendants to own and shepherd The New York Times for over a century while still remaining close as a family?'' This mystery should have framed the entire book. Instead it's thrown in at the end as a mere rhetorical question.