The '' ('''''FT''''') is a British international business newspaper. In the
UK , it is a morning daily newspaper published in
London that has had a strong influence on the
Financial Policies of the
British Government . It is known as one of the UK's superior daily newspapers. 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 .
Founded in
1888 by
James Sheridan and his brother, the ''Financial Times'' competed for many years with four other finance-oriented newspapers, finally in 1945 absorbing the last of these, the ''
Financial News '' (founded in 1884). The ''FT'' has specialized in reporting business and financial news while maintaining an independent editorial outlook. On occasion it has attacked the financial policies of the British government. Circulation of the ''FT'' is said to be one of the world's highest among financial newspapers, second only to that of ''
The Wall Street Journal ''. Printed as a
Broadsheet on distinctive light
Salmon Pink paper, the ''FT'' is the only paper in the UK providing full daily reports on the
London Stock Exchange and world markets.
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" or alternatively "parish magazine of the City", with its only rival being the slightly older and more daring ''
Financial News ''. In 1893, the ''FT'' turned salmon pink — although later credited as a marketing masterstroke that made it immediately distinguishable from its competitor, the similarly named ''Financial News'' (founded 1884) this move was in truth inspired by economy - pink paper being cheaper than white. In 1993, the FT printed a single edition of the paper on white stock to commemorate this change a hundred years earlier. 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
Globalisation .
As cross-border trade and capital flows increased rapidly during the 1970s, 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
1 January 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 three 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 five 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 news source involving the
European Union , the
Euro , and European corporate affairs.
On 13 May 1995 the Financial Times group made its first foray into the online world with the launch of the first version of
[http://www.ft.com which was the result of internal development effort. This edition provided a high level summary of news stories from around the globe and was supplemented in February 1996 with the launch of stock prices followed in Spring 1996 by the second generation site. The site was advertising funded and contributed to the development of the emerging online advertising market in the UK in the late 1990s. Between 1997 and 2000 the site underwent several revamps and changes of strategy as both the FT Group and Pearson reacted to the rapidly changing online marketplace. FT.com is now one of the few UK news sites successfully operating a subscription model for content.
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, although the newspaper was first printed in the United States outside of New York City in 1985. In March 2006, the ''FT'''s US circulation was 137,845.
1
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 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.
On announced a new advertising campaign centred around the tag-line “We Live in Financial Times”.
Financial Times launches new brand advertising campaign Retrieved 3 May 2007.
Financial Times - World business. In one place. Retrieved 3 May 2007. The ''FT'' redesign was handled by and was the first major project for design firm Shakeup Media and young American designer Ryan Bowman.
Redesign of the Financial Times Retrieved 9 May 2007.
The New FT: the designer’s inside story Retrieved 9 May 2007.
The ''Financial Times'' reports extensively on business and features extensive share and financial product listings. It also has a sizeable 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'' magazine is a monthly magazine that is usually 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.
The ''Financial Times'' is normally seen politically as '', Part II, 1992.
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.
is a
Prediction Market contest the Financial Times is hosting that allows users to buy and sell contracts based on future financial, political, and news-driven events by spending fictional Financial Times Dollars (FT$). Based on the assumptions displayed in James Surowiecki's
The Wisdom Of Crowds , this contest allows people to use prediction markets to observe future occurrences while competing for weekly and monthly prizes.
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 colour 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
1 May to
28 June 2006 .
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.
A number of former ''FT'' journalists have gone on to high-profile jobs in journalism, politics and business.
Robert Thomson , previously the paper's US managing editor, is now editor of ''
The Times ''.
Will Lewis , a former New York correspondent and News Editor for the ''FT'', is the current editor of the ''
Daily Telegraph ''.
Dominic Lawson went on to become editor of the ''
Sunday Telegraph '' until he was sacked 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, and has been
Secretary Of State For Children, Schools And Families since July 2007.
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 ''.
