ink-stained wretches

New York Times Consolidation Includes International Rebranding

A BOUT DE SOUFFLE (1960) / BREATHLESS (1961)
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

The New York Times is losing weight and tightening its belt in 2013, offering buyouts to prominent staffers, sealing the paywall, and attempting to sell the Boston Globe. The latest step in new CEO Mark Thompson’s inward-looking strategy is a rebranding exercise: The International Herald Tribune will now be called the International New York Times, “reflecting the company’s intention to focus on its core New York Times newspaper and to build its international presence,” according to an announcement today.

The 125-year-old Paris-based paper was originally the New York Herald’s European edition, and later dubbed the New York Herald Tribune from 1959 until 1967, as immortalized by Jean Seberg in Godard’s Breathless. (New York is itself a Herald Tribune descendant.) Future of journalism revenue idea: Start selling official but vintage-looking shirts in the Seberg style, even if the International New York Times doesn’t have the same ring to it.

N.Y. Times Renaming International Herald Tribune