IHT Redesign: 28 steps towards the International New York Times

O.K, so www.iht.com is being folded into www.nytimes.com.

What can we expect in design terms I don't know, but everyone at the IHT's Paris HQ has seen now, since a few weeks, a redesign for the IHT. A number of large group presentations were made so it's no big secret.

Most memorable for those who have seen the designs coming from the NYT's Tom Bodkin, is the fact that for the first time a long discussed idea is going to happen. International Herald Tribune on the masthead will be run as three words along the top, not the current logo which has always awkwardly stuck the word 'International' between and above the words Herald and Tribune.

This of course would facilitate, or at least set-up the possibility of going from International Herald Tribune (28 characters and spaces) to International New York Times (28 characters and spaces). Not saying this is going to happen, just saying that the design set up, and typeface relationship between the NYT masthead and the IHT will then be in place.

If you want a taste of how this is going to look, and the typeface used, please pick up your copy of the NYT/IHT property magazine Key which launched internationally on Friday, and there you can see it running vertically on the front cover.

Here's the NYT masthead as rendered by Key.

Here's the new IHT masthead (perhaps) as rendered by Key.

Here they are together.

You (probably) saw it here first if you don't happen to work for the IHT.

READ AN ALTERNATIVE IHT DAILY NARRATIVE AT

A PLACE IN THE AUVERGNE

International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
NYT

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Will the IHT become the International New York Times?

In response to a posting I had done about iht.nytimes.com, a Think! reader wrote to me, posing this tricky question:

Which of these scenarios do you see as more likely to occur:
a) in two years NYT decides this website integration is not working and splits off a completely separate IHT.com...in Paris!
b) in two years NYT decides to once and for all go full-on with NYT International and the IHT name and newspaper ceases to exist?


The answer to that particular question - I stress the particular because these are just two of many scenarios that could occur - would be 'b'.

In today's world it just isn't possible to imagine an organisation like the NYT being unable or unwilling to intergrate the web operations of the IHT and the NYT. If they can't pull if off, then I'd say you might as well pose scenarios about the NYT going out of business.

So that's scenario 'b' being more likely than scenario 'a', in response to the question posed.

As to scenario 'b': that's another matter altogether.

I'd say there is a reasonable chance of that, yes. And that's what this blogger hopes to avoid, and hopes this blog will contribute to its avoidance.

But the problem isn't what to do with the IHT; it's what to do with the mothership and newspapers in general.

Newspapers are in a mess every which way you look at them.

The solution lies in coming up with Newspaper 2.0 because at the moment they are still trading with Newspaper 1.0, a product that hasn't broadly or conceptually changed since the beginning of newspapers.



A Place in the Auvergne
International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
NYT