Searching for the terms "Information Architecture" on the New York Times the first two occurrences, related to Information Architecture as the science of organizing and structuring informations on a (digital) media, date to August 3, 1997 (Designing Action) and to August 30, 1999 (E-Commerce Report; On-line merchants find that a well-designed Web site can have a big impact on the bottom line).

From Design Action:

(...) criticizes the common form of information organization - recognizable to anyone who uses the World Wide Web - where the ''information architecture mimics the hierarchical structure of the bureaucracy producing the design, (...)

From E-Commerce Report; On-line merchants find that a well-designed Web site can have a big impact on the bottom line:

The project involved several components, including information architecture -- or the arrangement of information within a site -- navigation, graphic design and the selection of words and photographs for each page.