Being right is fun. As we reported a fortnight ago, Michael Oreskes has been named executive editor of the International Herald Tribune. Oreskes, currently the NYT deputy managing editor (just appointed in November 2004), will move to Paris this summer to officially take over for departing editor Walter Wells.

Bill Keller says lovely things about Oreskes in his memo to the newsroom (fired off to Romenesko mere minutes after it was sent), and says that, though he'll miss his praiseworthy colleague, "implicit in Mike's appointment is a commitment to even closer collaboration between The Times and the Trib" (he says this more formally in the NYT Business Section here). Which makes the above illustration of the Eiffel tower an apt metaphor for the Times and the IHT: two august institutions on either side of the Atlantic joining in one great, monolithic, towering media behemoth...with Keller at the top (along with all sorts of kissing couples). Even better: now Keller totally has a place to crash when he goes to Paris. Sweet!