New York Times Co. plays hardball, forces sole ownership of Herald Tribune
The New York Times Company has signed a letter of intent to buy out for less than $75 million the Washington Post Company's half of The International Herald Tribune which has a circulation of 263,878, consisting primarily of American expatriates, tourists and international business executives. This move would dissolve what this New York Times story (registration required) calls an unusual 35-year partnership of two of the newspaper industry's leading journalistic rivals:
The Post memo said that Times Company executives took the position that if they were unable to buy out the Post Company interest, the Times Company would "start its own international edition anyway" to compete with The Herald Tribune, and would block any further subsidy of The Herald Tribune's current deficit.
...The Post memo said that the introduction of an international edition of The New York Times could have crippled The Herald Tribune, which is in the midst of a fierce worldwide circulation and advertising war with The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.
...The announcement of the sale marked a clear breach between companies and families that had had close and cordial relations for a generation. The Sulzberger family owns a controlling interest in the Times Company, as the Graham family does in the Post Company.
...While The Post has tied its fortunes closely to those of the wealthy and fast-growing Washington area, Mr. Goodale said The Times has successfully pursued a strategy of selling the newspaper nationally.
The Times's revenue stream from retail and classified advertising aimed at New York-area readers is increasingly bolstered by national advertising. International expansion, Mr. Goodale said, is a logical extension of this strategy.
The International Herald Tribune — founded as The Paris Herald 115 years ago by James Gordon Bennett, the publisher of The New York Herald — has for decades offered its readers a mixture of the journalism of The Times and The Post, including foreign, business and cultural news.
The Times became a part-owner in 1967, merging its unprofitable international edition with the publication then owned by Whitney Communications and the Post Company. The Whitney interests sold their stake in 1991.