IHT to be rebranded International New York Times

The rebranding of the 125-year-old paper announced Monday comes as The New York Times Co. looks to focus on its flagship brand and expand its presence overseas. The name change will become official later this year.

The newspaper plans to add an unspecified number of columnists and reporters. CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement that a company review led it to believe it had the potential to increase subscribers outside of the U.S.

"The digital revolution has turned The New York Times from being a great American newspaper to becoming one of the world's best-known news providers," he said.

The IHT was founded as the Paris Herald, the European edition of the New York Herald, in October 1887. In 1928, it became the first newspaper distributed by airplane, with morning copies sent to London. Following a merger with the New York Tribune, the European edition was bought by the Washington Post and The New York Times and became the International Herald Tribune in 1967.

In 2003, the Times purchased The Washington Post Co.'s 50 percent stake in the Paris-based newspaper. The move made the Times the IHT's full owner. The Times and the Herald Tribune already run a unified website, with visitors to IHT.com automatically sent to an international home page for the Times.