By: Pamela Sampson, Associated Press Writer (AP) The chairman and CEO of the
International Herald Tribune (
IHT) was ousted from his post Monday over what he said were "deep differences" with the newspaper's sole owner, The New York Times Co.
Peter C. Goldmark becomes the third top-ranking manager to leave the
IHT since the Times Co. bought out the half belonging to its longtime partner, The Washington Post Co., in an acrimonious deal late last year.
The
Times issued a statement saying that Richard Wooldridge, the
IHT's president and chief operating officer since 1998, was taking over the paper's business operations. He will report to Janet L. Robinson, senior vice president of newspaper operations for The New York Times Co. and president and general manager of the
Times newspaper.
Goldmark accused the
Times of ending the Paris-based
IHT's independence. He said he had been asked to leave and that his job was being eliminated as part of a plan for the paper's editorial department to report exclusively to New York.
"I was not quite ready to go, but
The New York Times has asked me to go," he said in a statement. "This means I am the last publisher of the
IHT as an independent newspaper with its own voice and its own international outlook on the world."
Goldmark said he and the
Times disagreed "on many issues" in the last few months.
"That is a great loss," he said. "The world needs more independent voices ... and independent perspectives that see the world whole and are not managed from America."
Catherine J. Mathis, a spokeswoman for the
Times, said the paper disagreed with Goldmark's comments. "We believe that the
International Herald Tribune has always been a strong example of independent, high quality, objective journalism and we expect that that will continue," she said.
IHT Managing Editor Walter Wells echoed her remarks. "I think what he seriously failed to understand correctly is that there is no more powerful, independent voice in all its mutations than
The New York Times," Wells told The Associated Press. "The only time we ceased publication was during the Nazi occupation during World War II, when the newspaper was not able to have an independent voice."
The end of the 35-year
IHT partnership between the
Post and the
Times was bitter. The deal -- which the
Times said amounted to less than $75 million -- was announced in October, and the purchase took place Dec. 30. Control of management was handed over the next day.
In a memo at the time of the announcement, the
Post suggested it had been strong-armed into selling after the
Times threatened to start a competitor to the
IHT.
Before the deal, the
Times and
Post each held half of the
IHT, a 115-year-old daily with more than 20 printing sites and a circulation of about 260,000 in places as divergent as Japan, Lebanon, and Spain.
Wells, a former
Times assistant national editor who spent 21 years at the
IHT, came out of retirement to take charge of the paper, replacing Executive Editor David Ignatius, who returned to the
Post as a columnist.
Robert McCartney, the
IHT's former managing editor, returned to the
Post to become its European economics correspondent based in Paris.
The
Post announced Thursday that it had reached a deal to publish some of its articles in
The Wall Street Journal's international editions. Under the deal,
The Wall Street Journal Europe and
The Asian Wall Street Journal, which are published by Dow Jones & Co., will have access to
Post news and feature articles, as well as opinion columns. It also gives the
Post a new way to reach an international audience. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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