Financial Times to move to single global print edition
The Financial Times: moving to single global print edition
The Financial Times is to institute path-breaking changes to the production of its printed newspaper that appear to be the penultimate step towards becoming a digital-only publication.
A lengthy memo sent yesterday afternoon to staff by the editor, Lionel Barber, stated that the pink paper plans "to launch a single edition, global print product in the first half of 2014."
In effect, it means that the FT's paper will no longer be a "news"paper. There will be only "minimal late evening changes". Late-night working will virtually cease. Barber explains:
"The 1970s-style newspaper publishing process - making incremental changes to multiple editions through the night is dead. In future, our print product will derive from the web offering - not vice versa."Instead, the "pre-planned" paper's content will be focused on explaining "the most important issues of the day" with "show pages" of data and graphics.
Barber says "journalists will publish stories to meet peak viewing times on the web rather than old print deadlines," adding:
"The process will be akin to a broadcasting schedule. Where once we planned around page lay-outs, we will now adopt a news bulletin-style approach."In pointing out that "news editors and reporters will shift further away from reactive news gathering to value-added 'news in context'", he then stresses that staff will be expected to remain "faithful to the pursuit of original, investigative journalism."...MORE
FT.com to focus on 'smart aggregation of content'
The editor of the Financial Times has shared "the next steps" in its move to a digital-first news operation in a memo which was today published online, including a focus online on "smart aggregation of content from our own journalists and third parties".MediaBriefing has quite a lot on the business side:
In the memo, Lionel Barber told FT journalists that the new approaches will prompt "changes in work practices, a further shift of resources to ft.com and a significant reshaping of the newspaper", including the introduction of "a single edition, global print product" next year.
"The new FT will be redesigned and updated to reflect modern tastes and reading habits," he said, adding that it will take its cue from the website, as opposed to the other way around....MORE
...Cost management, part 172
Barber points out that FT has "100,000 more digital subscriptions than sales". The FT had more than 600,000 subscribers in H1 2013, half of which are digital.
Single copy sales are however shrinking fast, with 230,000 global sales but only 41,000 full-price daily sales in the UK in August (it's about 100,000 on Saturdays). Here's global circulation decline this year, from ABC:
But despite digital subscription success, the paper announced voluntary redundancies in February and today Barber heavily hints at more cost cutting to come:...MORE
...As we move into the next phase of digital first, colleagues need to make informed choices about their careers at the FT and where opportunities lie.No major news organisation has yet found the right answer to question of how do you take a legacy costbase into a digital age.
But there is an even bigger picture. Revenue, the only metric that really matters, was flat in H1 2013 and newsroom structure and cost management can't affect that.
-- The FT's investment in data analytics to track and understand its audience
-- Its purchase of and investment in cutting edge mobile technology products and teams
-- Its marketing operation that sells and renews subscriptions using data and evidence
-- AND its focus on original content are the things that will grow FT Group as a business.
