London, GB | Formerly of New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, and the Western Cape. | Saoránach d’Éirinn.

IHT Follow-up

Writing about the latest changes over at the International Herald Tribune, the Guardian‘s media blog “Organgrinder” linked to our “remarkably comprehensive” post covering the subject in depth. I’m slightly embarrassed to say I’ve never seen any of Jean-Luc Godard’s films, something I will have to rectify through the DVD collection at the French Institute’s Haskell Library when I’m back in New York.

Meanwhile, Erik Zenhausern, the IHT’s former Operations Director for the Americas, corrects some errors on my part and gives us an inside look at NYT-IHT operations [boldface mine]:

I don’t argue with much of what’s said in this article. Certainly, The New York Times wants to have a global edition and the IHT is baiscally just the delivery mechanism.

Some things in the article may not be 100% accurate. The dingbat, along with the whole paper (it does mention the switch to Poynter type)was redesigned in 2002-2003.

Also, the New York Times does not own the print sites around the world where the IHT is printed. These are contract printers. Of course the entire supply chain is already set up so it will be easy to pump NYT lite throughout Europe and Asia and NYT doesn’t have the cost of maintaining these facilities.

I sat in on early strategy meetings when the NYT forced out the WP. Even in the first few months of owning the newspaper, many people at the NYT were ready to call the newspaper New York Times International. If it wasn’t for focus groups saying they thought anything that says “New York” on it won’t sell in europe.

While in the early days the tread lightly, heavier footsteps are coming. The IHT will definitely be folded into the NYT at some point.

Published at 2:08 pm on Friday 24 April 2009. Categories: Design Newspapers Tags: , , .
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