Times of London to Print Daily U.S. Edition

LONDON, May 26 — The Times of London said Friday that it planned to publish a daily newspaper in the United States for distribution in the New York and Washington areas.

The paper's editor, Robert Thomson, said the newspaper would be intended for "American readers who are global in their outlook and global citizens who are in America."

The Times, which is owned by the News Corporation, the international media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said the first edition would appear June 6, with a print run of close to 10,000 copies.

The papers will be printed and distributed through a partnership with The New York Post, another publication owned by News Corporation, and will be sold at about 2,000 sites, primarily in New York and New Jersey, Mr. Thomson said.

The partnership with The Post will help control costs, which often bedevil international publishing ventures, though Mr. Thomson declined to specify the size of the investment by The Times.

The Times will be the only general-interest British newspaper to publish a daily edition in the United States. The Financial Times, the business daily owned by Pearson, has had a United States edition since 1997, while other British newspapers, including The Guardian, have published weekly editions.

Mr. Thomson said The Times saw an opportunity for growth in the United States because of the cuts that many American news organizations have made in their overseas reporting staffs and in the space they devote to international events. The Times has about 20 full-time reporters outside Britain, including 8 in the United States.

"I think there's genuine demand for international news in America," Mr. Thomson said. "You've got China and India on the rise, Japan coming back, Europe a fascinating story, and yet fewer American journalists in the field than perhaps at any time in history."

The newspaper's Web site demonstrates the potential for a United States edition, Mr. Thomson said. Of the roughly eight million unique visitors it attracts each month, more than three million are in America. The pattern is similar at The Guardian; nearly 40 percent of its 13 million unique visitors are in the United States, a spokeswoman said.

The United States edition of The Times will be a repackaged version of an international edition published since last summer, mostly for distribution in Continental Europe.

Mr. Thomson said it would feature international news and coverage of business and arts more prominently than the British and European editions, which tend to highlight British headlines.

By starting the United States edition, The Times also hopes to capitalize on what Mr. Thomson called an unsatisfied demand in America for coverage of "what the U.S. newspapers insist on calling soccer, but the rest of the world calls football."

During the World Cup, which begins June 9 in Germany, the United States edition will feature soccer news prominently on the front page. The desire to use soccer as a way to market the paper in America could lead to some divided loyalties at The Times, he acknowledged.

"Believe it or not, The Times of London wants the U.S. football team to make it all the way to the final," he said. "A dream final, from our perspective, would be England against the United States."