Tag Archives: Financial Times
Financial Times celebrates 125th anniversary
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times turned 125 on Wednesday, and it is celebrating with anniversary feature in print and online, a new marketing campaign and subscription offer, and a series of global events.
FT editor Lionel Barber said, “The Financial Times has been the gold standard in business and financial journalism for 125 years and we intend to do the same for the next 125.”
A special anniversary feature, written by Barber, and commentary written by Lord Lawson, was published Wednesday.
The FT’s original masthead will be reproduced in print and online and a four-page pull-out section will reprint a selection of the best front pages and key moments in the FT’s history. The anniversary hub, which includes a history timeline, will gather the FT’s anniversary content throughout the year.
On March 14 the FT and Penguin will publish “Lunch with the FT: 52 Classic Interviews” in hardback and ebook format, edited by Barber, with a foreword by CEO John Ridding. The book features a collection of memorable lunches with prominent personalities ranging from Angela Merkel and Jeff Bezos to Michael Caine and Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, plus many more encounters selected from the iconic feature in FT Weekend.
To mark the occasion, the FT is offering a special anniversary deal of $125/£125/€125 for a one-year standard FT.com subscription, valid for new subscribers only and available to purchase on Wednesday at ft.com/125.
A global marketing campaign will include a new print and online creative by adam&eveDDB. The campaign features an image of a rolled up Financial Times newspaper and includes the tagline, ‘Still guiding the way for global business.’ The campaign will appear in selected print and digital titles as well as on digital outdoor screens in London.
Over the course of the year FT 125 and FT tablet app shaped hot air balloons will fly over global financial hubs and the FT’s headquarters in London will be lit pink to commemorate the milestone.
Ridding and Barber will host anniversary receptions in London and New York, and will ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on April 30.
The Empire State Building will be lit FT pink on May 1.
The FT moving into the digital age
by Chris Roush
Eric Pfanner of The New York Times writes about how the Financial Times has transformed itself into more of a digital publication as it celebrates its 125th anniversary this week.
Pfanner wrtites, “The F.T. was one of the first newspapers to charge readers for access to its Web site, which it did in 2002. It revamped its digital business model in 2007, moving to a ‘metered’ approach, in which readers get a certain number of articles free before they are asked to subscribe.
“Since 2007, The F.T.’s paying digital audience has tripled, and the metered approach has been adopted by a number of other newspapers, including The New York Times.
“With print circulation moving in the other direction — last year alone it fell about 15 percent — The F.T. recently accelerated its move away from paper. In January, Lionel Barber, the paper’s editor, sent a memo to the staff, detailing a plan to ‘ensure that we are serving a digital platform first and a newspaper second.’
“Under the plan, the print operations of The F.T. will be streamlined. While separate regional editions — for the United States, Britain, Continental Europe, Asia, India and the Middle East — will be maintained, there will be fewer nightly updates.”
Read more here.
No credit to Reuters from competitors
by Chris Roush
Ryan Chittum of Columbia Journalism Review writes about how competing business news media did not credit Reuters’ investigative work last year on Chesapeake Energy for the announcement Tuesday that its CEO was stepping down.
Chittum writes, “Beat reporters tend and their bosses not to like to give credit to competitors who have scooped them repeatedly.
“The Wall Street Journal doesn’t deign to mention Reuters at all in its Marketplace cover piece, which is a big hole in its story. Bloomberg is chintzy, crediting “media reports” rather than its top competitor. That’s pathetic, but at least it mentioned the press’s role, unlike the Journal.
“The New York Times gives Reuters its due. But the Financial Times is most generous and, not coincidentally, most accurate, writing this in its fourth paragraph:
Shareholders including Carl Icahn, the activist investor, forced a shake-up of the board last year after the revelation by Reuters of Mr McClendon’s previously undisclosed borrowings intensified concerns about corporate governance.
“It might be cynical to note that Reuters is more of a competitor to the WSJ (Dow Jones) and Bloomberg than it is to the FT and the NYT, but there it is. By ignoring or downplaying a competitor’s scoop, particularly one that sent a company’s shares down 10 percent at one point, you’re not telling the whole story.”
Read more here.
Gradual evolution at the Financial Times
by Chris Roush
Columbia Journalism Review‘s Dean Starkman interviewed Financial Times managing editor Martin Dickson about the paper and its future.
Here is an excerpt:
Dickson: That is part of what we want to do. We have to address a huge range of reader demands, from very short instant market blogs at one end to investigative reporting at the other. We are placing increasing emphasis on our investigative reporting.
CJR: Is that so?
Dickson: Yeah. [FT top editor] Lionel Barber, two years ago now, hired Christine Spolar…She’s a great American investigative reporter, who now heads up our investigative reporting unit. Under her leadership, we’ve run some really great, in-depth series over the past year or two. I don’t know if you recall the tax law series we did with ProPublica, which won an Overseas Press Club award…That’s one example. The LIBOR scandal—we played a leading role in reporting on that, both in terms of reporting and then in-depth analysis of how it worked and what it means…Hopefully, it would be wonderful if one of these days, we got a Pulitzer. Another thing I’d point out, which is very much in the mainstream of what we do, is the series on Amazon we did earlier this year. Amazon is not a company known for being terribly liberal with its relations with the press… I think that shows a pretty major commitment to investigation. And that took months put together.
CJR: Is that a cultural change for [the FT]?
Dickson: It’s been a gradual evolution. There’s been a constant desire to do investigative reporting. You go back 20 years, or 15, 20 years, we had an investigations unit which did some very good work. But there’s been very much a new emphasis on it since Lionel took over as editor. He has really pushed this agenda.
Read more here.
FT to cut 35 jobs, enact digital-first strategy
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times plans to cut 35 jobs and begin a digital-first strategy to its news gathering, reports Josh Halliday of The Guardian in London.
Halliday writes, “Barber said the FT will make a net headcount reduction of 25 – after hiring 10 journalists for digital roles – in an effort to save £1.6m this year as part of the strategy, outlined to staff in a memo on Monday, seen by MediaGuardian. He added that the FT needed to be ‘reshaped for the digital age.’
“Barber said: ‘We need to ensure that we are serving a digital platform first, and a newspaper second. This is a big cultural shift for the FT that is only likely to be achieved with further structural change.’
“He added the FT would only survive if it adapts to the demands of readers in digital and in print. Technology companies such as Google, LinkedIn and Twitter are routinely disrupting the business models of old titles.
“‘It would be reckless for us to stand still. Of course, we must stick to the tested practices of good journalism: deep and original reporting based on multiple sources and a sharp eye for the scoop,’ Barber said.”
Read more here.
FT’s parent sees shares fall after earnings warning
by Chris Roush
Pearson Plc, the parent company of the Financial Times, saw its shares fall on Monday after it warned that this year’s earnings won’t match the the previous year’s earnings.
Mark Sweney of The Guardian in London writes, “FT Group, home to the Financial Times, expects to report ‘good revenue growth’ for 2012.
“Pearson said growth at the division, which includes a 50% share in the publisher of the Economist, came despite a deterioration in advertising sales in the fourth quarter.
“FT Group digital and subscription-based revenues continued to grow in 2012, although profits will be ‘significantly’ lower year on year because of ‘further actions to accelerate the shift from print to digital.’
“The division’s profits will also be hit by the loss of income from FTSE International after Pearson sold its 50% interest to the London Stock Exchange for £450m in December 2011.”
Read more here.
Financial Times names new CFO, COO
by Chris Roush
The Financial Times has appointed Tas Viglatzis as chief financial officer and board member, effective from the beginning of February.
As CFO, Tas will be responsible for ensuring the FT is on course to meet its financial targets, help shape company strategy, and identify and execute new acquisitions. He will contribute to the transformation of the FT as it continues to build new revenue streams and increase the efficiency of its operations.
“Tas has been with the FT for six years, previously as director of strategy and in other finance roles,” said FT CEO John Ridding in a statement. “This, combined with his earlier experience as part of Pearson’s finance division, equips him and us very strongly to drive the FT’s finance operations and help deliver our strategic priorities.”
The FT has also appointed Gio Stoppiello, previously the FT’s UK finance director, as chief operating officer. In his new role Gio will plan, assess and deliver the reorganisation of FT operations in line with rapid market changes and audience demands.
Tas and Gio take over from Scott Henderson who leaves to pursue new opportunities in North America after six successful years as FT CFO, three with the additional responsibility of COO. Scott has ably guided the FT in developing new revenue, executing acquisitions and building key new divisions, ensuring the FT hit or exceeded targets every year.
Read more here.
Why would the FT sell its independence?
by Chris Roush
Kevin Rafferty, who was in charge of the FT’s Asia coverage and later opened the paper’s first office in Hong Kong, writes for the Japan Times about why the British business newspaper would be sold by parent Pearson.
Rafferty writes, “Not everything about the FT is perfect. Its investigative reporting is weak, and some of its reporters, and editors in their choice of the stories they highlight, show a naivete that my generation did not.
“The paper is mainstream and should be open to more radical opinions. The choice of long articles to which a full page is devoted is sometimes quirky.
“In my day, I recoiled in horror when the ‘How to spend it’ column boasted of a new product, gold toe-nail covers. Now, to my increasing horror, ‘How to spend it’ has migrated into a glossy magazine published with the paper 30 times a year and crammed with advertisements for luxury products and articles extolling goodies that surely appeal only to the 1 percent of the paper’s filthy rich readers. The latest issue highlights a folding table for taking on your travels at a cool cost of ¥3 million.
“Any sale would be bad and unsettling. Being enfolded into a big group would have the editor constantly looking over his shoulder to head office when not searching to realize the synergies of being part of a big group. However much proprietors promise continuing editorial integrity and independence of the new acquisition, the money they paid tells the lie.”
Read more here.
Littell, who helped FT and Marketwatch.com start Euro news site, dies
by Chris Roush
Andrew Littell, who in 2000 helped the Financial Times and MarketWatch.com start a business-news website, has died. He was 44.
Laurence Arnold of Bloomberg News writes, “In 2000, as head of corporate finance for the Financial Times Group Ltd., Littell helped create Financial Times MarketWatch.com Ltd., a joint venture with MarketWatch.com that established a real-time news and commentary website for European investors, FTMarketWatch.com.
“‘Andrew was a rising star with a bright future,’ Larry Kramer, publisher of USA Today in McLean, Virginia, said yesterday in an e-mail. Kramer founded U.S.-based MarketWatch in 1997 and was chairman of the joint venture with the Financial Times. ‘Andrew was instrumental in building new and creative advertising models, and we were very impressed with him.’
“Though it succeeded in building readership, FTMarketWatch.com couldn’t survive the drop in advertising when Internet stocks crashed in 2001 and 2002, Kramer said. The website was out of business by the time he sold MarketWatch to Dow Jones & Co. in 2005 for about $530 million.
FT being shopped in China
by Chris Roush
Doug Young of The South China Morning Post writes that the parent company of The Financial Times is looking for a buyer in China.
Young writes, “But what I find most intriguing is the fact that Pearson might even consider selling one of its crown jewels to a Chinese buyer, which perhaps reflects just how difficult the market has become for print publications that once ruled the global media market. Pearson’s advisers looking in China also highlights the fact that Chinese media are one of the few global groups in the sector that is relatively cash rich, since many of the nation’s biggest media groups have near-monopoly status in their local markets and often have highly diverse holdings that run the range from print, to broadcasting and new media assets.
“The Financial Times saga first burst into global headlines last fall, when media reported that Pearson was looking to sell the paper and the most likely buyers would include financial media groups Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, as well as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. Later reports about a month ago indicated that Bloomberg was indeed interested, but it’s unclear if those talks ever went anywhere.
“My guess is that this sniffing around for interest from China indicates that any Bloomberg talks have either stalled, or perhaps Pearson’s advisers are trying to start up a bidding war. According to my source, his company, one of China’s top media groups, was recently approached by third-party consultants acting on Pearson’s behalf to see if they had any interest in a potential bid for the Financial Times.”
Read more here.
