The New York Times Co. | The New York Times Co. | The New York Times
The New York Times Co. unveiled "a series of strategic initiatives" Thursday morning concurrent with its first-quarter earnings report.

Among the planned initiatives are the next phase in The Times’s digital subscription/paid products strategy; an international expansion under the new unified brand; and a renewed emphasis on both video production and brand extensions.

Among the new products, to be introduced at the end of this year and the start of 2014: a "lower-priced paid product designed to allow access to The Times’s most important and interesting stories" and an "enhanced tier that would offer extras at a higher price point to 'all digital access' and print subscribers." (more...)

The New York Times Co. | The New York Times
Good-bye, International Herald Tribune: The New York Times Co. is rebranding its European newspaper. The company believes "there is significant potential to grow the number of New York Times subscribers outside of the United States,” Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement.

The IHT has "had three different nameplates in its 125-year history, with ‘New York’ in its title for 80 of those years," its publisher, Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, said in the same statement. (more...)

The New York Times Co.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory spent a year studying energy use at the New York Times building in New York. The study, "A Post-occupancy Monitored Evaluation of the Dimmable Lighting, Automated Shading, and Underfloor Air Distribution System in The New York Times Building," was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission. The Times Co. provided "[i]n-kind support for the research," a press release says.

Among the report's findings (full report here): (more...)

The New York Times
Mark Thompson says he was not aware of the details in a letter he authorized threatening London paper The Sunday Times with "defamation proceedings" over an article it was preparing about BBC program "Newsnight"'s decision to drop an investigation into sex-abuse charges against one of its stars, Jimmy Savile, reports Matthew Purdy.

The letter was prepared in September by a law firm and "included a summary of the alleged abuse, including the allegation that some abuse might have occurred at the BBC," Purdy writes. It "appears to have been the last in a string of opportunities for Mr. Thompson, while director general, to have gotten a fuller picture of Mr. Savile and the 'Newsnight' program," he writes.

Thompson is now the CEO of the New York Times Co. He declined to comment for the Times' article, but a former aide told Purdy, “It’s not clear if he was shown it, but he doesn’t remember reading it." (more...)

Sky News | The New York Times | "The Daily Show" | Time
The BBC has reached a settlement with Lord McAlpine, the politician it erroneously fingered as a sexual predator in a report on its "Newsnight" program.

But how did the BBC botch that report so soundly -- especially after after it killed a "Newsnight" story about a BBC presenter credibly accused of pedophilia?

It's not for lack of editorial process, Sarah Lyall and Nicholas Kulish write: After a 2004 scandal,

The corporation also appointed a deputy director general in charge of news operations; established a “journalism board” to monitor editorial policy; issued numerous new guidelines on journalistic procedures; and put an increasing emphasis on “compliance” — a system in which managers are required to file cumbersome forms flagging dozens of potential trouble spots, from bad language to “disturbing content” like exorcism or beheadings, in every program taped for broadcast.

(more...)