Financial Times

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The Financial Times (FT) is an international business newspaper printed on distinctive salmon pink broadsheet paper. The paper was started in 1888 in London. The paper's main focus is business news and the economy. It's editorial stance is center-right, although it is considered more liberal than its rival, the Wall Street Journal. The periodical is printed in 23 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, Johannesburg and Istanbul.

History

The FT was launched as the London Financial Guide on January 9, 1888, by James Sheridan.[1] Horatio Bottomley served as its first chairman. The paper renamed 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 of coverage. It also established a network of correspondents in major cities around the world, reflecting early moves in the world economy towards globalization. As cross-border trade and capital flows increased rapidly during the 1970s, the FT began a program of international expansion, facilitated by developments in technology and the growing acceptance of English as the international language of business.

On January 1 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 23 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, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It is printed Monday to Saturday at 5 strategically located print centers across Europe. Thanks to its extensive network of correspondents reporting from all the political and commercial nerve centers of Europe, the FT is widely regarded to be the premier news source 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 2007, the daily circulation of the US edition was 460,000.[2]

In September 1998, the FT became the first UK-based newspaper to sell more copies internationally than within the UK. Worldwide circulation stands at 432,548 (Source: ABC July 2006), with global readership estimated at over 1.6 million people in more than 140 countries.

Since 2000, the FT publishes a German language edition, Financial Times Deutschland, with its own news coverage. Its circulation in 2007 was 101,000.[3]

In July 2006, the FT announced a "New Newsroom" project to integrate the newspaper more closely with FT.com. At the same time, it announced plans to cut the editorial staff from 525 to 475. In August, it announced that all the required job cuts had been achieved through voluntary layoffs.[4]

Content

The FT reports extensively on business and features extensive share and financial product listings. It also has a sizable network of international reporters – about 110 of its 475 journalists are based outside the UK. 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, horlogerie, haute couture, automobiles, fashion advice and columns by important individuals in the arts in gardening, food, the hotel business, and travel industries. It regularly themes its issues, such as "Travelling Unravelled", "A Passion for Fashion", "Superior Interiors", and its annual "Christmas Unwrapped". "How To Spend It" has won numerous prizes for being the best newspaper supplement of the year.[5]

File:FTbuild.jpg
The Financial Times building

Opinions

The Financial Times is normally seen as center-right/liberal, although to the left of its principal competitor, The Wall Street Journal. It advocates free markets and is generally in favor of globalization. During the 1980'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 has also 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.

Ownership and Related products

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.

Financial Times Group includes the Financial Times, FT.com, a 50% shareholding in The Economist, Interactive Data Corporation (a market data provider) , ownership of Les Échos (a Paris-based financial daily), mergermarket (an online intelligence reporting family) and numerous joint ventures including Vedomosti in Russia. In addition, the FT Group has a unit called FT Business which is a provider of specialist information on retail, personal and institutional finance segments. It is a publisher in the UK of Investors Chronicle (a personal finance magazine), The Banker, Money Management and Financial Adviser (a publication targeted at professional advisers).

The Financial Times also ran a business related game called "In the Pink" (a reference to the color of the newspaper, and to the phrase "in the red" meaning to be making a loss). The player 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 May 1, to June 28, 2006.

Notes

  1. Financial Times] Encyclopedia Brittanica. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
  2. Financial Times. Newspaper Direct. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
  3. Financial Times. Newspaper Direct. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
  4. Financial Times Plans Layoff of 200 The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
  5. Pearson Annual Report 1997. Pearson Plc. Retrieved February 25, 2007.

References
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External links

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