January 21, 2003

THE WORLD COULD LOSE A VITAL INTERNATIONAL VOICE

By Tom Plate

Is this the death of an independent International Herald Tribune?

LOS ANGELES -- Newspapers can die abruptly, a sudden cardiac arrest after a long decay. Two lively ones that I once worked for -- the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and New York Newsday -- had their plugs pulled by corporate bosses observing the strict and unspiritual rules of the profit bottom line. Those two papers weren't making any -- so, goodbye.

On the other hand, sometimes the death of a newspaper isn't so sudden and dramatic. Sometimes a good newspaper simply fades away through erosion and neglect.

The fear is that this is what might happen to the remarkable and venerable International Herald Tribune (IHT), for decades a mainstay for the international traveler seeking to stay on top of global developments (not to mention U.S. sporting scores).

The crisis is the unceremonious sacking of the paper's chairman and CEO Monday (Jan. 20) by the IHT's new owner, the New York Times Co. The IHT is the U.S.-owned daily newspaper that has the distinction of being edited and published outside of the United States. The truly international paper has an excellent staff, draws on the best journalism appearing in the New York Times and the Washington Post, and from its Paris perch has offered the sophisticated person of the world a cosmopolitan perspective on issues political, economic and cultural. Although not a large-circulation daily, it is bought, especially at airport kiosks, in 180 countries via 22 printing sites around the world.

It now appears that the quiet takeover of the IHT by the New York Times Co. that began in October is no delicate process. "I was not quite ready to go, but the New York Times has asked me to go," admitted Peter C. Goldmark Jr., speaking from Paris. "And they have made it clear that the job I have filled will no longer exist."

Goldmark is no career complainer. He has an extraordinary track record over the decades that includes everything from president of the Rockefeller Foundation to one of the celebrated authors of the legendary New York City bankruptcy bailout in the '70s. It's clear he's not so much concerned about his next job -- line forms to the right to hire him -- as he is about that particular job (IHT's CEO and chairman) being vaporized in the takeover. More than symbolism is involved, he argues.

His righteous anger undoubtedly got the better of his separation agreement. After all, the always feisty Hungarian-American could have quietly grabbed his fat exit check and headed straight for the door. The New York Times, after all, has a hallowed reputation, unlike that of some other large newspapers and their corporate chains that produce newspapers as if they were cigarette brands. But by pointedly making a big deal of the fact that with his position erased from the corporate chart, the IHT editorial department will ultimately heretofore report to someone in New York, not Paris. Said Goldmark, heading for the door: "This means I am the last publisher of the IHT as an independent newspaper with its own voice and its own international outlook. At a time when the world is growing to mistrust America, it needs thoughtful voices and independent perspectives to see the world whole and not managed from America ... It is the end of an era in international journalism that will leave a big hole, just when we need it most."

The Goldmark sacking is also further evidence, if any were needed, of what my coruscating and capable columnar colleague William Safire on Sunday termed "media giantism."

This is the seemingly inexorable process by which large corporations greedily gobble up smaller media -- local newspapers, TV and radio stations, etc. -- to create media behemoths that make overall economic sense but entail serious social costs. "While political paranoids accuse each other of vast conspiracies," wrote Safire in his regular New York Times column, "the truth is that media mergers (in the United States) have narrowed the range of information and entertainment available to people of all ideologies."

But that issue is not fully appreciated by the American people. How could it be? The institutions that could explain it to them are the very ones with a huge economic interest in seeing that giantism proceeds apace as their profit margins widen and their perception of their responsibility to the public interest narrows.

None of us wants to lose a job that we love. But Goldmark's cry in the wilderness is the same as Alexis de Tocqueville's: That an independent and decentralized press is vital to American democracy. "What is going forward is the global New York Times," Goldmark explained. Thus, America's giant corporations -- in South Korea they are termed "chaebol" -- follow the economic logic of the earlier industrialized age. America, it seems, is heading back to the future.

On an issue of this magnitude, Goldmark is not the type to keep quiet simply for an exit check. Journalism, American and otherwise, needs more like him.

The above weekly column has just appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser, The South China Morning Post and The Straits Times of Singapore. The author, Tom Plate, is a regular columnist at these three papers. The column also appears in other world newspapers, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Seattle Times, The Japan Times and The Korea Times. Email him at: tplate@ucla.edu.

For publication and reprint rights, contact the author directly or John Simpson (john.simpson@latsi.com) of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International.

Previous Columns:

Japan '42 Redux -- Or Is It Vietnam All Over Again? (January 20, 2003)

Making The Best Of A Bad Situation (January 13, 2003)

Can Chinese Diplomacy Turn Over A New Card? (January 6, 2003)

Stunning Victory For Korean Reform Candidate (December 31, 2002)