International Herald Tribune expands business section

The International Herald Tribune plans to introduce a new section called "Marketplace" that will expand its business sections, reported AP on Friday. Material for the new section will be provided by financial news company Bloomberg LP. It is the second time that the paper has cooperated with Bloomberg. The Asian edition of the International Herald Tribune already has a weekday section called "Business of Asia by Bloomberg".

Marketplace, planned to start at the beginning of November, will consist of 4 pages and cover company and market focused news. The section will appear Monday to Friday and be distributed across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas and on the paper's website. New staff has been hired to produce the section. The new Marketplace section will provide space for more targeted financial advertising.

Der Spiegel reports that the move is also an attack on the Wall Street Journal, whose European and Asian editions switch to a compact format today (see previous posting). While the Wall Street Journal shrinks, the International Herald Tribune is doubling its business section. Commenting on the design changes at the Wall Street Journal, Michael Oreskes, editor-in-chief of the International Herald Tribune, said in Der Spiegel that he wishes the Wall Street Journal success with its attempts to save money. He has watched the tabloid experiments of many newspapers with curiosity. But the philosophy of his paper is to offer readers more rather than less, even if that means initial losses.

For some time the International Herald Tribune has been trying to win readers from the leading business papers the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Since 2003, when the paper was fully acquired by the New York Times Company, it has introduced several new sections and hired business editors and correspondents, reports Der Spiegel.

Sources: Der Spiegel (in German), AP through Yahoo!