Tag Archives: Financial Times
Financial Times website is hacked
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times is the latest news outlet to be hacked by supporters of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, following a phishing attack on the company’s email accounts.
Henry Mance of The Financial Times writes, “Twelve posts entitled ‘Hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army’ appeared on the FT’s tech blog between 12.38pm and 12.42pm on Friday, with official Twitter feeds also disrupted.
“‘We have now locked those accounts and are grateful for Twitter’s help on this,’ said Robert Shrimsley, the managing editor of FT.com.
“The Syrian Electronic Army, a group of anonymous hackers who claim that Arab and western media have presented a biased view of the country’s civil war, has previously compromised news organisations including the Associated Press, the BBC and Al Jazeera.
“Last month a fake AP tweet announcing an attack on the White House caused the Dow Jones to fall nearly 1 per cent within two minutes.
“An individual who said he was with the group interviewed on email by the FT last month said they would target the media of ‘all the countries who support the terrorists groups in Syria.’”
Read more here.
Financial Times launches on Flipboard
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times launched on Flipboard on Thursday.
Flipboard users across all Android and iOS devices will now have access to a range of FT content, including news, commentary, analysis, blogs and video.
The launch marks the latest development in the FT’s digital strategy of offering its content across an array of devices and platforms with a single login and subscription. Mobile is an increasingly important channel for the FT, driving a third of all FT.com traffic and 15 percent of new digital subscriptions.
“The Financial Times’ launch on Flipboard builds on the success and popularity of our growing suite of mobile products, including the recently redesigned FT Web App, offering readers an important new channel to access FT journalism and strengthening our presence on Android, the largest smartphone operating system in the world,” said Rob Grimshaw, managing director of FT.com, in a statement. “Full-page advertisements provide yet another opportunity for our clients to reach the FT’s powerful, international and increasingly mobile audience.”
FT.com subscribers get full, unlimited access to the latest FT content on Flipboard. All Flipboard users are able to access FT blogs and videos.
Bloomberg’s praise for FT fuels speculation
by Chris Roush
Mike Bloomberg’s comments at an event honoring The Financial Times‘ 125th birthday has once again fueled speculation that he is interested in purchasing the financial newspaper, reports Amy Chozick of the New York Times.
Chozick writes, “In a speech for the occasion, Mr. Bloomberg said he was there ‘to celebrate my second favorite financial news outlet,’ which he said has ‘always been on the cutting edge of financial journalism.’
“Mr. Bloomberg has a standard response these days to inquiries about his interest in adding The F.T., currently owned by British company Pearson, to the financial media company that bears his name: ‘In fact, people are always telling me I should buy the F.T.,’ Mr. Bloomberg said. He paused for comic affect, adding: ‘I buy it everyday.’
“The Empire State Building glowed in a pink hue to celebrate the bisque-colored paper that got its start in Britain on May 1, 1888. The TV host Charlie Rose and the British advertising executive Martin Sorrell were among the guests who sipped pink champagne and vodka-spiked pink lemonade in the airy courtyard of the Academy Mansion near Central Park, a live jazz band playing in the background.”
Read more here.
Staying close to your audience and customers
by Chris Roush
John Ridding, the CEO of the Financial Times, was interviewed on Tuesday after ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange, about the business newspaper’s 125 years and what it’s plans are for the future.
FT.com offers discount as part of 125th anniversary
by Chris Roush
Lauren Indvik of Mashable writes about how the Financial Times is celebrating its 125th anniversary.
Indvik writes, “The Financial Times is celebrating its 125th anniversary this week, offering a one-year standard subscription to the FT.com for $125, approximately 62% off the regular retail price.
“The offer is valid to first-time U.S. subscribers only through May 1 at ft.com/125. The FT is promoting the offer through paid placements on Twitter and LinkedIn, and offering it as a redeemable Foursquare special for those who check in at the Empire State Building and New York Stock Exchange.
“This isn’t the first time the FT has run a special promotion on an online subscription, though it is, to my knowledge, the biggest discount it has extended to date. The FT offered a free Nexus 7 tablet with a subscription in December, helping the newspaper finish the year with a record paid circulation of 602,000, of which 316,000 were digital subscriptions.
“In addition to the discount, the FT is celebrating its anniversary with a host of appearances and promotions in New York. FT Group CEO John Ridding (whom we interviewed last month) and FT Editor Lionel Barber will ring the Closing Bell at the NYSE and make an appearance on CNBC’s Closing Bell at 4 p.m. Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Empire State Building will be lit up in the FT‘s signature pink for the first time ever.”
Read more here.
FT adjusting to the sense of a finite read
by Chris Roush
Stuart Dredge of The Guardian writes about how the Financial Times has continued to evolve its web application.
Dredge writes, “Grimshaw adds that 12% of the FT’s digital advertising revenues are currently coming from mobile devices. ‘We would like that to be higher, but it’s substantially above the industry average,’ he says.
“A large portion of the FT’s digital audience ‘channel-hops’ throughout the day, accessing the site from computers at work, then smartphones or tablets while commuting, and during the weekends. Indeed, the FT’s tablet and mobile traffic is ‘pretty much on a par’ with desktop usage at the weekend.
“Tracking these reader habits informed the web app’s redesign, particularly the decision to offer static and dynamic versions to be switched between at will.
“‘From the very early days, we’ve noticed that people like this sense of a finite read. Completion is a big thing for people, and in common with most publishers, we’re not great at giving people a sense of completion with our desktop experience,’ says Grimshaw.
“‘We were keen to do more with the app to deliver that to people. But the right approach was to offer people the best of both worlds: the morning edition is the finite read, then you can flick a switch to go over to this live experience, which will update throughout the day. It feels like the right thing to do.’”
Read more here.
Financial Times faces weak ad market
by Chris Roush
Mark Sweney of The Guradian reports that Pearson Plc, the parent of the Financial Times, is saying that the business newspaper is facing a weak advertising market.
Sweney writes, “Pearson has said that the Financial Times faced a ‘weak’ advertising market in the first quarter of this year, but nevertheless managed to increase its digital subscriptions by 4% on the first quarter to 328,000, while Penguin has had a good start with strong sellers from authors including Jamie Oliver and Nora Roberts.
“Overall, Pearson said total group revenues fell 1% year on year on an underlying basis to £1.2bn in the first quarter.
“Pearson, which owns an international education business and book publisher Penguin, said the FT has been hit by the fact that a number of large advertising campaigns have been planned for the second quarter compared with last year, when they ran in the first three months.
“The company, which is proposing a final dividend of 30p at its annual general meeting to be held on Friday, said that despite the weak trading conditions, the FT was ‘benefiting from resilient demand for content and services.’ The FT has a global paid and digital circulation of 602,000.”
Read more here.
FT using short-form video to expand
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times is using video to increase its profile, says Josh de la Mare, global editor for Financial Times Video.
Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser spoke with him in this video interview at the Financial Times headquarters.
Why the FT is launching a publication for investment advisors
by Chris Roush
Kelly O’Mara of RIABiz writes about the launch of a publication called FA IQ by the Financial Times that is aimed at financial advisors.
O’Mara writes, “Financial Times-owned Money-Media has launched a free online publication aimed at independent financial advisors. Managing editor Joan Warner says that FA IQ, which made its debut April 11, will fill a different niche than Money-Media’s other investment-oriented publications, Ignites and FundFire, with very little cross-over among them. But in a crowded marketplace (which includes RIABiz), competitors are skeptical about the online publication’s chances of finding an audience.
“‘There’s lots of apples and oranges, and if all you come to market with is a different variety of orange, good luck,’ says Jim Lowell, who publishes a newsletter about Fidelity and edits Forbes’ ETF Advisor publication.
“Warner says that FundFire and Ignites, which are subscription-based publications, ‘already have a fairly substantial readership coming from advisors.’ However, FundFire is primarily about separately managed accounts, and Ignites serves the mutual fund industry. ‘Over the years, we just heard a clamoring [from advisors] for a publication of their own.’
“Warner is hoping that FA IQ, which focuses on practice management and client relationships, will meet that need. While other Money-Media publications are all relatively news-focused, FA IQ will do primarily ‘service-y’ articles with a timely element, she says.”
Read more here.
The FT’s secret weapon is data
by Chris Roush
Lauren Indvik of Mashable writes Tuesday about The Financial Times, which is growing its online and digital presence by closing watching the numbers.
Indvik writes, “The FT was well ahead of this trend, introducing a metered access model in 2007. Today, subscriptions make up more than half of the FT Group’s revenue, while advertising only accounts for 39%, down from 52% in 2008. At the FT specifically, advertising once made up as much as 70% of yearly revenue. This year, the paper expects to generate more money from subscriptions than from advertising.
“‘That’s a big deal in the transformation of our business model,’ John Ridding, CEO of the FT, said in a sit-down interview at Pearson’s U.S. headquarters last month. Ridding joined the FT from the editorial side, reporting abroad from Paris and Korea before taking on a series of executive positions, including editor and publisher of FT Asia. He was named chief executive of the paper in 2006, assuming the CEO role of the entire FT Group for the first time this month.
“I asked Ridding how the FT was able to increase its subscriber levels by more than a quarter in the last five years. ‘It’s sort of a combination of art and science,’ he says. ‘Five or six years ago we started a new media model, charging for access through a metered system. When we started doing that, it was primarily to build a revenue stream online, but probably what was more important over time was the data and customer insight that that gave us. That’s what transformed the business,’ he says.
“Looking through some of the reader data — the FT‘s data team now numbers more than 30 across three groups — the FT was able to recognize the kinds of patterns readers display before purchasing subscriptions. ‘We would see the sort of articles they were reading and the frequency they were reading those articles, for instance, and we began to map those,’ Ridding explains. ‘People do behave in predictable ways.’”
Read more here.
