Financial Times
The
Financial Times (
FT) is an international business newspaper printed on distinctive salmon pink
broadsheet paper. The periodical is printed in 22 cities: London, Leeds, Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Milan, Madrid, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Washington DC, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Dubai and Johannesburg.
The
FT was launched as the
London Financial Guide on
January 9,
1888, by
Horatio Bottomley, renaming itself the
Financial Times on
February 13 of the same year. Describing itself as the friend of "The Honest Financier and the Respectable Broker", it was initially published as a four page journal from its headquarters in
London. The initial readership was the financial community of the City of London. The Financial Times soon established itself as the sober but reliable "stockbroker's Bible", with its only rival being the slightly older and more daring Financial News. In 1893, the FT turned salmon pink — a masterstroke that made it immediately distinguishable from its competitor--the similarly named
Financial News (founded 1884). From their initial rivalry, the two papers merged in 1945 to form a single six-page newspaper. The Financial Times brought with it a higher circulation, while the Financial News provided enormous editorial talent.
Over the years, the newspaper grew in size, readership and breadth ofcoverage. It also established a network of correspondents in major cities around the world, reflecting early moves in the world economy towards globalisation.
As cross-border trade and capital flows increased rapidly during the '70s, the FT began a programme of international expansion, facilitated by developments in technology and the growing acceptance of English as the international language of business.
On January 1st, 1979, the first FT to be printed outside the UK rolled off the presses in Frankfurt. Since then, with its greatly increased international coverage, the FT has become a truly global business newspaper, printed in 22 locations worldwide, with 3 international editions to serve the needs of its readers in the UK, Continental Europe, the US and Asia.
The European edition is distributed in Continental Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. It is printed Monday to Saturday at 5 strategically located print centres across Europe. Thanks to its extensive network of correspondents reporting from all the political and commercial nerve centres of Europe, the FT is widely regarded to be the premier source news involving the European Union, the Euro, and European corporate affairs.
In 1997 the FT launched the US edition, which is now printed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Orlando and Washington, DC. In March of 2005 the FT's US circulation was 125,104 (Source: ABC March 2005).
In September 1998, the FT became the first UK-based newspaper to sell more copies internationally than within the UK. Worldwide circulation stands at 437,156 (Source: ABC January–June 2001), with global readership estimated at over 1.6 million people in more than 140 countries.
In
2000, the
FT published a
German language edition,
Financial Times Deutschland, with its own news coverage. Its circulation in 2003 was approximately 90,000.
The current editor of the
FT is
Lionel Barber, who took over from
Andrew Gowers in the
autumn of 2005, who reportedly left over strategic differences.
The
FT reports extensively on business and features extensive share and financial product listings. It also has a sizeable network of international reporterscovering current affairs in general. The FT is usually in two sections, the first section covers national and international news, while the second section covers company and markets news.
How To Spend It
How To Spend It magazine is a monthly, magazine that usually gets published with the Financial Times Weekend Edition. The glossy large magazine has won the hearts of many Weekend Edition subscribers, with its high detail on the latest in the glitz and glamour of the high-life. Its articles mostly concern high quality products: yachts, mansions, apartments, designs, horologuerie, haute couture, automobiles, fashion advice and columns by important indivduals in the arts in gardening, food, the hotel business, travel industries. It regularly themes its issues, such as "Travelling Unravelled", "A Passion for Fashion", "Superior Interiors" and its annual "Christmas Unwrapped". It has won numerous prizes for being the Best Newspaper Supplement of the year.
|
The Financial Times building |
Opinions
The Financial Times is normally seen as centre-right/liberal, although to the left of its principal competitor,
The Wall Street Journal. It advocates free markets and is generally in favour of
globalisation. During the 80's it supported
Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan's monetarist policies: however, it has recently seemed to align itself with
Labour in the UK. It also has been quite supportive, until recently, of
Gordon Brown, the current British
Chancellor of the Exchequer. FT editorials have tended to be pro-
European Union, though often taking a critical view.
FT Knowledge is an associated company, through
Pearson PLC, which offers educational products and services to a variety of customers. FT Knowledge has offered the 'Introducing the City' course (which is a series of Wednesday night lectures/seminars, as well as weekend events) during the Autumn and Spring since 2000.
The FT Group includes The Financial Times, FT.com, a shareholding in
The Economist, ownership of
Les Echos (a Paris-based financial daily) and numerous joint ventures including
Vedemosti in Russia.
The Financial Times also ran a business related game called "In the Pink" (a reference to the colour of the newspaper, and to the phrase "in the red" meaning to be making a loss). The players is put in the virtual role of
Chief Executive and the goal is to have the highest
profit when the game closes. The winner of the game (the player who makes the highest profit) will receive a real monetary prize of £10,000. The game ran from the 1st May to 28th June, 2006.
*
Lionel Barber (Editor)
*
Richard Tomkins (Consumer Industries Editor)
*
Lucy Kellaway (Management Columnist)
*
Tim Harford (Dear Economist)
*
Martin Wolf (Chief Economics Commentator)
*
Jurek Martin (Columnist and former Washington Chief)A number of former FT journalists have gone on to high-profile jobs in journalism, politics and business.
Robert Thomson, previously the FT's US managing editor, is now editor of
The Times.
Dominic Lawson went on to become editor of the
Sunday Telegraph until he was terminated in
2005.
Andrew Adonis, a former education correspondent, became an adviser on education to
Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and was given a job as an education minister and a seat in the
House of Lords after the 2005 election.
Ed Balls became chief economic adviser to the Treasury, working closely with
Gordon Brown, the
chancellor of the exchequer (or finance minister) before being elected as an
MP in 2005 - he is widely tipped to become a minister.
Bernard Gray, a former defence correspondent and Lex columnist, was chief executive of publishing company CMP before becoming chief executive of TSL Education, publisher of the
Times Educational Supplement.
*On January 4, 1993, the FT was printed on white paper to celebrate 100 years "in the pink."
*One of the
Financial Times'
newsprint suppliers are
Holmen, which produces their distinctively coloured
newspaper.
*
FT.com — The website operates a fee-based subscription, but many current and recent stories are available free. It includes all the articles from the newspaper as well as web-only content. The website is updated 24 hours a day by teams in London, New York and Hong Kong. It is also possible to subscribe to the print edition through the website.
