How did The New York Times International Edition come to Paris?
The New York Times (NYT) is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper owned by The New York Times Company. As the name suggests, it is from New York City, founded in 1851 as the New-York Daily Times by journalist and politician Henry Jarvis Raymond (1820-1869) and banker George Jones (1811-1891), published by Raymond, Jones & Company. To November 2022, it has 9.3 million subscribers.
The New York Times International Edition was established for the global market. It was first published from 1943-1967 as a weekly news-sheet, and after a pause of 46 years, it re-commenced publication from 2013 to the present day.
The NYT publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger visited Tehran, the capital of Iran, in June 1943 where he met Brigadier General Donald H Connolly in charege of moving Allied troops the the Soviet Union via the Persian Corridor. To improve morale among the troops, Arthur Sulzberger made the decision to produce an international edition of the NYT. It was an 8-page weekly tabloid containing selected items from the American edition, starting from 9 September 1943.
It was popular during the Second World War, which ended in 1945, the year that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established it headquarters in Paris on 16 November ‘to advance peace, sustainable development, and human rights.’
During the third session of the United Nations General Assembly, held in the UNESCO building in Paris from 21 September to 12 December 1948, the NYT created a special daily United Nations Edition. It was 10-12 pages, printed in America and flown to Paris daily. It proved to be very popular, and the edition continued weekly, and from 11 December 1948, it became NYT International Air Edition.
The United Nations broadsheet continued as stand-alone edition, but from June 1949, it was printed in Paris, ending its issue on 19 June 1949, before being inserted into the weekly Sunday edition of the International Air Edition. From 1952, printing of the International Air Edition shifted from Paris to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to reduce costs.
In 1960, with new typesetting equipment, printing functions returned to Paris – to rue d’Aboukir in the 2nd arrondissement – and the name changed to International Edition of The New York Times to compete with the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune, which was also based in Paris. From 1964, NYT editors were based in Paris too.
The New York Herald Tribune, established in 1897 The difference was that the New York Herald Tribune Europe edition, with advertisng, had a circulation of almost 50,000, whereas the International Edition of The New York Times had virtually no advertising and a circulation of around 32,000. But by 1967, the International Edition was not profitable and it closed on 20 May 1967, laying off all of its about 100 staff.
For the next 46 years, the International Herald Tribune was published in Paris through a conglomerate of The New York Times, The Washington Post with Whitney Communications.
International Herald Tribune was renamed The International New York Times after an announcement from the New York Times Company on 14 October 2013 – and so began the second phase of international news in Paris through NYT. In October 2016, it was renamed The New York Times International Edition and the Paris newsroom closed.
Now, in Paris, readers will see a daily The New York Times International Edition and a 16-page weekend edition, headquartered out of London.
