The International Herald Tribune, or the Most Important Ritual in International Travel

I love the International Herald Tribune when I'm outside of the United States. I started getting it the first time I went to Europe, just a year or two out of College. It was the closest you could get to the New York Times, which is my stateside ritual. I have vivid memories of reading it in Toulouse, France and in Amsterdam during these first trips.

It's better than the Wall Street Journal global edition, obviously.

It was until recently a joint venture of the New York Times and Washington Post. It will probably be rebranded as the global NYT soon, now that the Times owns it wholly.

It has a quirky history that goes back to the old days of now defunct New York dailies.

The Paris Herald was founded on October 4, 1887, as the European edition of the New York Herald by the parent paper's owner, James Gordon Bennett, Jr.

After the death of Bennett, Jr. in 1918, Frank Andrew Munsey bought the New York Herald and the Paris Herald. Munsey sold the Herald newspapers in 1924 to the New York Tribune, and the Paris Herald became the Paris Herald Tribune.

In 1928, the Paris Herald Tribune became the first newspaper distributed by airplane, flying copies to London from Paris in time for breakfast. Publication of the newspaper was interrupted during Nazi Germany's occupation of Paris (1940–1944).

In 1959, John Hay Whitney, a businessman and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, bought the New York Herald Tribune and its European edition. In 1966, the New York paper closed, but the Whitney family kept the Paris paper going through partnerships. In December 1966, The Washington Post became a joint owner.

The New York Times became a joint owner of the Herald in May 1967, whereupon the newspaper became known as the International Herald Tribune.

It's not available in South America so far as I can tell, which is the only reason not to go to South America.