For those of you/us who are fond of the International Herald Tribune and its web site, the not-quite-correct information floating around this week about the IHT site being “folded into” the New York Times is puzzling. To set the record straight: if you read the AFP story on this it points out that the two newspapers, part of the same New York Times company, will “merge the web sites” to create a “co-branded” site in coming months. This should come as no surprise: discussions have been going on for some time about a more efficient web operation. I met with the IHT’s marketing director in London in August who told me that with the two papers and web sites sharing much content, it clearly makes little sense to continue with an international IHT and international web pages for the NY Times, a situation that has lingered since the NY Times company bought out the Washington Post’s share of the IHT in 2003. The New York paper’s site, with 25 million unique users a month according to AFP, nearly 20 million of whom are in the US, has 90 employees for the web site alone, I was told; the IHT, with 2.5 million unique users a month (AFP figures), has a far smaller staff, but there is some duplication.

The issue is how to find the most efficient solution without weakening branding. The development of the new joint international site is expected to take several months. Given the mix of the strength of the two brands but revenue that continues to fall after a first quarter 2008 loss of $335,000 at the New York Times, with news about a joint site, the 23 October report on the the NY Times third quarter results are likely to provoke a good deal of interest.

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