WASHINGTON: The New York Times announced cutbacks on Tuesday to its longtime European hub in Paris, with plans to close its editing and prepress print production operations in the French capital.

Those functions will be combined into the Times’s New York and Hong Kong operations, resulting in the loss of 70 Paris jobs, either through elimination or relocation, it said.

The move comes as part of a redesign of the international print newspaper “to make it better, more relevant and crucially, more economically sustainable in an increasingly digital world,” according to an internal memo sent to the staff of The International New York Times.

“Without these changes, the international paper’s future would be uncertain at best,” the memo said.

The Times is now prioritising growth in digital media, aiming to boost its international subscriber base, according to the memo.

Nevertheless, it said: “Print remains a vital platform to The New York Times.” With the print redesign, the company aims to boost the breadth and depth of analysis and opinion “on topics that are most meaningful and pertinent to international audiences.” The move comes nearly three years after the Times-controlled, Paris-based 125-year-old International Herald Tribune was rebranded as the International New York Times and further integrated into the Times’s operations. The memo said the Times regrets the elimination of jobs in Paris.

“France remains a vital market for us and we will maintain a robust news bureau in Paris as well as a core international advertising office there,” it said.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016