I worked for the Trib from 1988 to 2002. When I joined, it was a three-way partnership among Whitney Communications, the owner of the old New York Herald Tribune, the New York Times and the Washington Post. In 1991, Whitney sold its stake to the other two partners. On October 22, 2002, the New York Times announced that it would buy out the Post's stake, which it did at the end of 2002.
Read the Trib's own announcement about the change of ownership here. This article ran on October 23 and 24, 2003, depending on the edition. The Trib's Jan. 2, 2003, article, detailing the Times's plans, can be found here.
You can read the New York Times article announcing the takeover. (This is an abstract, you have to register and pay to see the whole thing.) Its press release can be found on the Times's corporate website. The Times article on the closing of the deal ran Jan. 2, 2003 and is substantially the same as that of the Trib.
Read the Washington Post article announcing the takeover here. An internal Post memo describing the transaction to its staff is available on the Poynter.org site (scroll down to October 22, 2002. A short New York Times memo is directly below.) Michael Getler, the former editor of the Trib and then the Post's Ombudsman, wrote an analysis of the situation in the Post on October 26, 2002.
On Nov. 11, 2002, the New York Observer reported on a trip to the Trib office in Paris by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the Times's chairman, in late October. The Observer analyzed the Times takeover on October, 28, 2002.
The on-line magazine Slate had something to say about the Trib's future in an article on January 2, 2003. The British paper the Independent analyzed it on January 14, 2003. (This is an abstract; you'll have to pay a pound to read this article.)
The Washington Post wrote an article about the New York Times's business
strategy on March
14, 2003, quoting Robert McCartney, the former Trib managing editor (and
subsequently the Post's European economics correspondent).
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In connection with the Times takeover, several executive changes were announced.
On January 20, 2003, the Times announced
that Richard Wooldridge, the president and chief operating officer, would
take over the business end of the company, with the position of chief executive
being eliminated. Peter Goldmark, the outgoing chief executive (he held
the additional title of chairman), gave his version of the event in a memo to the
Trib staff.
On December 9, 2002, it was announced that David Ignatius, the Trib's editor, and Robert McCartney, the managing editor, would return to the Washington Post, whence they came. They were being replaced by the McCartney's predecessor, Walter Wells, who became acting managing editor once the sale of the Post stake to the Times closed. The Trib's article on the change can be read here. The New York Times's version of the event is here and its press release is here.
The Times announced
on March 20, 2003, that Didier Brun and Stephen Dunbar-Johnson were being
promoted from vice presidents of the Trib to senior vice presidents. Dunbar-Johnson
joined the paper as advertising director in 1998; Brun began working
for the Trib in 1987.
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Other on-line information about the Trib:
The New York Observer wrote about the New York Times's publishing arrangement with Le Monde on April 22, 2002. The article can be read here (it's the third one down).
David Ignatius was interviewed by the website JournalismJobs.com in July 2001. You can read what he said here.
Slate Magazine had an article on June 4, 2000. You can read it here.
The NewYorkMetro.com web site had some speculation about the editorship of the Trib on November 1, 1999. It is the fifth item in this column.
New York Magazine took a look at the Trib on June 28, 1999. The article is located here.
The Columbia Journalism Review wrote about the Trib in the summer of 1996. The article is here.
Reviews of the Trib on Epinions are posted here.
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