The direct irradiation of diphenyl sulfide and p-substituted thioanisoles in the presence of oxygen was investigated by means of both steady state and laser flash photolysis experiments. Two competitive pathways took place from the triplet excited state of thioanisoles, C-S bond cleavage, finally leading to aryl sulfinic acid and sensitized oxidation leading to S-oxidation. Co-oxidation of dodecyl methyl sulfide occurred efficiently implying that an S-persulfoxide intermediate is involved during the sensitized oxidation. On the other hand, triplet state of diphenyl sulfide also showed competitive C-S bond cleavage giving phenyl sulfinic acid and ionization to diphenyl sulfide radical cation that in turn led to diphenyl sulfoxide. The rate constants of the above reactions were determined by time-resolved experiments.