One less thing to aspire to, journalists: The New York Times in cutting back on those nice overseas executive gigs at the Paris-based International Herald Tribune:

William E. Schmidt, an assistant managing editor of The New York Times who was to become the top editor of The International Herald Tribune in Paris, instead will remain at The Times and be promoted to deputy managing editor, the paper announced on Friday.

The NYT is also pulling editor Martin Gottlieb back to New York, six months after they sent him to France as the IHT editor, global edition. They promoted internally at the IHT to fill the slots. As for Schmidt, the NYT said that he's just too valuable to lose in this period of economic upheaval.

Also, Paris is expensive, and the Times has no money. [NYT]