The
International Herald Tribune is a widely read
English-language international
newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of
The New York Times and is printed at 35 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 180 countries. The
IHT is part of
The New York Times Company.
History
The
Paris Herald was founded on
October 4,
1887, as the European edition of the
New York Herald by the parent paper's owner,
James Gordon Bennett, Jr. The company is based in
Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris.
After the death of Bennett, Jr. in 1918,
Frank Andrew Munsey bought the
New York Herald and the
Paris Herald. Munsey sold the
Herald newspapers in 1924 to the
New York Tribune, and the
Paris Herald became the
Paris Herald Tribune.
In 1928, the
Paris Herald Tribune became the first newspaper distributed by airplane, flying copies to
London from Paris in time for breakfast. Publication of the newspaper was interrupted during
Nazi Germany's occupation of Paris (1940–1944).
In 1959,
John Hay Whitney, a businessman and
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, bought the
New York Herald Tribune and its European edition. In 1966, the New York paper closed, but the Whitney family kept the Paris paper going through partnerships. In December 1966,
The Washington Post became a joint owner.
The New York Times became a joint owner of the
Herald in May 1967, whereupon the newspaper became known as the
International Herald Tribune.
In 1974, the
IHT began transmitting facsimile pages of the paper between nations and opened a printing site near London. In 1977, the paper opened a second site in
Zürich.
The
IHT began to send electronic images of newspaper pages from Paris to
Hong Kong via satellite in 1980, making the paper simultaneously available on opposite sides of the planet. This was the first such intercontinental transmission of an English-language daily newspaper and followed the pioneering efforts of the Chinese-language
Sing Tao Daily newspaper.
In 1991,
The Washington Post and
The New York Times became sole and equal shareholders of the newspaper.
In February 2005, it opened its Asia newsroom in Hong Kong.
The New York Times takeover
As of 2003, the
IHT is completely owned by The New York Times Company, after that firm purchased the 50% stake owned by the
Washington Post Company on
December 30,
2002. The takeover ended a 35-year partnership between the two domestic competitors. The
Post was forced to sell when the
Times threatened to pull out and start a competing paper. As a result, the
Post entered into an agreement to publish selected articles in
The Wall Street Journal's European edition. Since the takeover, the newspaper has been subtitled "The Global Edition of the New York Times".
300px|rightIn 2008, the NYT Company announced the merger of the
New York Times and
IHT websites. As of March 29, 2009, the
IHT website is now the Global Edition of The New York Times. The new site is at . Links to all
IHT stories redirect to this main page and not the same stories at the new site. Not all
IHT stories are yet available at the new site.
Columnists
While the
International Herald Tribune shares many columnists with
The New York Times, it has its own voice, particularly in the field of culture. Well-known commentators include
Suzy Menkes on fashion,
Alice Rawsthorn on design, and Souren Melikian on art.
Affiliations
Affiliations with international newspapers include:
- El País (Spain) A daily, eight-page English-language version of El País comes with the Spanish edition of IHT.
Typically, the affiliation consists of an English-language edition of the local newspaper circulated together with the
IHT.
