Bye bye baby

The New York Times is shutting down IHT.com, its International Herald Tribune site, reports MediaBuyerPlanner. NYTimes.com will host the international news normally reserved for the deceased sister site.

The move is not about cost savings, but rather about growth, NYTimes.com general manager Vivian Schiller insisted, writes Forbes.

By combining the content of the sites and giving its core site a more international bent, NYTimes.com will see increased traffic and more inventory in which to sell advertising. The move will also let the paper better capitalize on the approximately 18 percent to 20 percent of foreigners who visit the site, by selling more ads geared toward them.

NYTimes.com drew 19.4 million unique visitors in August, up from just under 8 million the previous year; IHT.com reached just 2.5 million unique visitors in August, according to comScore.

There has been no indication, at least for now, that the print edition of the Paris-based newspaper will follow the website’s footsteps and shut down.

IHT.com died on the same day the Times made a couple of changes in an effort to cut costs. The Sports section is now included at the end of the Business section, and Metro coverage is now included in the A section. The moves will not affect the amount of coverage of the two topics, according to the Times.