82% drop in earnings and a new editor for the IHT

I don't presume that the appointment of a new editor to the IHT is bad news, but a funny day to make the announcment, given all the noise about the results.

Anyway, his name is William Schmidt. What I don't quite understand is why he won't take over until the end of this year? No sense of urgency then?

Also interesting that the man for the global job hasn't worked outside the U.S.A since at least 1995 if I read the below correctly. A lot has happened since then.


International Herald Tribune Names William Schmidt Editor, Global Editions
Paris, July 23, 2008: The International Herald Tribune (IHT) announced today that William Schmidt, assistant managing editor for The New York Times, has been named editor, global editions. He will move to Paris and take over from Martin Gottlieb at the end of the year.
Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, said: “Bill’s career is rich in both journalistic and management experience. He has reported from a variety of foreign and domestic bureaus – Moscow, Cairo and London, Chicago, Miami, Denver and Atlanta. As a member of The Times’s masthead, Bill has participated in most of the major decisions about our newsroom. One of his key achievements has been the significant improvements he has made to the management, fiscal discipline and training of The Times’s newsroom.”
Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, publisher of the IHT, said: “In his new job, Bill will set the strategic direction and maintain our high standards of news coverage. He will be the principal liaison with Bill Keller and me. His appointment reaffirms The New York Times’s commitment to the IHT as a critical part of its global strategy.”
Mr. Schmidt worked as a correspondent for Newsweek and, since 1981, The New York Times. In 1995 he became The Times's deputy national editor, and he has been a member of the senior management in the newsroom since 1997.
Mr. Schmidt shared the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1987, the George Polk Award for national reporting in 1971, and in 1977 he shared an award from the Overseas Press Club for his reporting on the war in Lebanon.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317&p=irol-pressArticle&ID=1178172&highlight=