Fiktiv UK - Financial Times

The Financial Times (FT) is an international daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by the Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States, and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In Spring 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which are digital subscriptions. The newspaper has a prominent focus on financial journalism and economic analysis over generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. The daily sponsors an annual book award and publishes a "Person of the Year" feature.

The paper was founded in 1888 as the London Financial Guide before rebranding a year later as the Financial Times. It was first circulated around metropolitan London by James Sheridan, who, along with his brother and Horatio Bottomley, sought to report on city business opposite the Financial News. The succeeding half-century competition between the two papers would eventually culminate in a 1945 merger, led by Brendan Bracken, which established it as one of the largest business newspapers in the world. Globalisation from the late-19th to mid-20th century facilitated editorial expansion for the FT, with the paper adding opinion columns, special reports, political cartoons, reader letters, book reviews, technology articles, and global politics features. The paper is often recognisable by its light-pink (salmon) broadsheet and digital display. It is supplemented by its lifestyle magazine (FT Magazine), weekend edition (FT Weekend), and a small portfolio of industry publications.

The editorial stance of the Financial Times centres on economic liberalism, particularly free trade and free markets. Since its founding it has supported liberal democracy, favouring classically liberal politics and policies from international governments. Its newsroom is independent from its editorial board. Due to its history of economic commentary, the FT publishes a variety of financial indices, primarily the FTSE All-Share Index. Its typical depth of coverage has, since the late-20th century, linked the paper with a white-collar and educated readership. The Financial Times is headquartered in Bracken House at 10 Cannon Street, near the city's financial centre, where it maintains its publishing house, corporate centre, and main editorial office.

The FT was launched as the London Financial Guide on 10 January 1888, renaming itself the Financial Times on 13 February the same year. Describing itself as the friend of "The Honest Financier, the Bona Fide Investor, the Respectable Broker, the Genuine Director, and the Legitimate Speculator", it was a four-page journal. The readership was the financial community of the City of London, its only rival being the more daring and slightly older (founded in 1884) Financial News. On 2 January 1893 the FT began printing on light pink paper to distinguish it from the similarly named Financial News: at the time it was also cheaper to print on unbleached paper (several other more general newspapers, such as The Sporting Times, had the same policy), but nowadays it is more expensive as the paper has to be dyed specially.

After 57 years of rivalry the Financial Times and the Financial News were merged in 1945 by Brendan Bracken to form a single six-page newspaper. The Financial Times brought a higher circulation while the Financial News provided much of the editorial talent. The Lex column was also introduced from Financial News. Pearson bought the paper in 1957. Over the years the paper grew in size, readership and breadth of coverage. It established correspondents in cities around the world, reflecting a renewed impetus in the world economy towards globalisation. As cross-border trade and capital flows increased during the 1970s, the FT began 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 (Continental Europe edition) was printed outside the UK, in Frankfurt. Since then, with increased international coverage, the FT has become a global newspaper, printed in 22 locations with five international editions to serve the UK, continental Europe, the U.S., Asia and the Middle East.

The European edition is distributed in continental Europe and Africa. It is printed Monday to Saturday at five centres across Europe, reporting on matters concerning the European Union, the euro and European corporate affairs. In 1994 FT launched a luxury lifestyle magazine, How To Spend It. In 2009 it launched a standalone website for the magazine. On 13 May 1995 the Financial Times group made its first foray into the online world with the launch of FT.com. This provided a summary of news from around the globe, which was supplemented in February 1996 with stock price coverage. The second-generation site was launched in spring 1996. The site was funded by advertising and contributed to the online advertising market in the UK in the late 1990s. Between 1997 and 2000 the site underwent several revamps and changes of strategy, as the FT Group and Pearson reacted to changes online. FT introduced subscription services in 2002. FT.com is one of the few UK news sites successfully funded by individual subscription.

In 1997 the FT launched a U.S. edition, printed in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, Orlando and Washington, D.C., although the newspaper was first printed outside New York City in 1985. In September 1998 the FT became the first UK-based newspaper to sell more copies internationally than within the UK. In 2000 the Financial Times started publishing a German-language edition, Financial Times Deutschland, with a news and editorial team based in Hamburg. Its initial circulation in 2003 was 90,000. It was originally a joint venture with a German publishing firm, Gruner + Jahr. In January 2008 the FT sold its 50% stake to its German partner. The Financial Times launched a new weekly supplement for the fund management industry on 4 February 2002. FT fund management (FTfm) was and still is distributed with the paper every Monday. FTfm is the world's largest-circulation fund management title. Since 2005 the FT has sponsored the annual ''Financial Times'' and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

On 23 April 2007 the FT unveiled a "refreshed" version of the newspaper and introduced a new slogan, "We Live in Financial Times." In 2007 the FT pioneered a metered paywall, which let visitors to its website read a limited number of free articles during any one month before asking them to pay. Four years later the FT launched its HTML5 mobile internet app. Smartphones and tablets now drive 12% of subscriptions and 19% of traffic to FT.com. In 2012 the number of digital subscribers surpassed the circulation of the newspaper for the first time and the FT drew almost half of its revenue from subscriptions rather than advertising.

The FT has been available on Bloomberg Terminal since 2010 and on the Wisers platform since 2013. From 2015, instead of the metered paywall on the website, visitors were given unlimited free access for one month, after which they needed to subscribe. Pearson sold the Financial Times Group to Nikkei, Inc. for £844 million (US$1.32 billion) in July 2015. In 2016, the Financial Times acquired a controlling stake in Alpha Grid, a London-based media company specialising in the development and production of quality branded content across a range of channels, including broadcast, video, digital, social and events. In 2018, the Financial Times acquired a controlling stake in Longitude, a specialist provider of thought leadership and research services to a multinational corporate and institutional client base. This investment built on the Financial Times’s recent growth in several business areas, including branded content via the acquisition of Alpha Grid, and conferences and events through Financial Times Live and extends the FT's traditional commercial offering into a wider set of integrated services.

The Financial Times is much more than a newspaper. It’s a multi-format global media organisation and works astonishingly well for advertisers in a wide range of sectors, from technology to top-of-the-range cars. An established world-class brand, renowned for its accuracy, authority and integrity, the Financial Times is an indispensable source of intelligence and insight for key decision-makers throughout the world. Our readers form a powerful group of influential business people and high-spending consumers, who are attracted to the Financial Times for the edge it gives them in business and in life.

The FT newspaper reaches the world. It’s available in 140 countries and is read by 1.5 million people who want to stay ahead in business and in life. They value its insight into topics from finance to politics and technology, and business coverage that’s second to none. And in a world of spin, they prize the FT for its independence and impartiality. No wonder it’s the first choice of the world’s decision-makers.

The Financial Times is the newspaper for business people. The international business community forms the core of our weekday readership and we have a wealth of experience in reporting, reviewing and analysing the financial markets in the UK and throughout the world. As international financial and business markets have developed and become increasingly global, so the range of coverage offered by the FT has expanded.

The Weekend FT, published on Saturday, is substantially different from any other UK or international Saturday publication and confirms that the FT is the thinking person’s weekend newspaper. The unique format combines close targeting for advertisers with relevant editorial matter. Each section is clearly depicted with its own icon and banner. The Weekend FT presents media planners and advertisers with an excellent opportunity to reach the unique FT readership "off-duty", as business prospects or as consumers within a high-income, high-spending group.

Weekday:
Section One
Section One of the Financial Times gives a concise overview of international affairs with daily coverage of major world news and business events as they occur.

Highlights include:
A fresh global perspective on breaking stories.
Regional news pages from every corner of the globe.
The highly acclaimed Lex column, containing pertinent and sophisticated financial analysis and commentary on world business, economic and market activity.
Plus regular specialized news pages:
Mondays: Inside Track - Profiles, Business Education, Business travel and On the Web
Tuesday to Friday: Management and technology features
Monday to Friday: The Arts Page, covering theatre, music, opera, the visual arts, cinema, books and architecture.

Section Two
Section Two of the newspaper, entitled 'Companies & Markets', provides authoritative news articles, analyses, market reports and statistical tables from major corporations and markets around the globe including:
International company news
International capital markets, covering world bond prices, new issues and comment
Currencies and Money, focusing on foreign exchange and world money-markets
World Equity Markets, providing the latest trends and data from more than 50 national markets at a glance
Emerging Market Focus
Share prices from the FTSE, NYSE and NASDAQ, comprehensive index futures coverage and world share price listings from 32 countries.

The FT features a regular range of supplements on specific days of the week. For advertisers, these supplements provide a unique editorial environment for their advertising.

FTfm (Monday)
FTfm is our Monday supplement dedicated to the world of fund management. As well as news, features, interviews, reviews and opinion, it provides prices and FT fund ratings for managed funds and is essential for fund managers, pension fund trustees, investment consultants and serious private investors.

Creative Business (Tuesday)
Analysis and reporting on the trends that are reshaping the creative industries: advertising, marketing, broadcast, entertainment, design and technology.

Appointments (Thursday)
Our advertisers know that the profile of our readership ensures they get the right kind of candidates for high profile roles from graduate to CEO level.

Weekend:
Section One
A microcosm of the Monday to Friday paper, this section carries a detailed summary of news, company activities and the markets for all those whose interest in business doesn't end on a Friday evening. These are the major players - and the FT responds to their needs, covering all the ground you would expect in the weekday edition, but in a tighter, more compact format.

Section Two
This section harnesses the spending power of the FT readership in personal investment. The Money section appeals to both experienced and new investors, making it a direct route to the financially-aware FT audience. An award-winning editorial team gives our readers a clear, unbiased guide through the maze of personal finance products and help them invest wisely.

Editorial topics include:
Markets, Personal Finance, Investment Funds, Financial Planning, plus a full run-down of the figures on Unit Trusts, Investment Trusts and Managed Funds.
Bolstered by indices, statistics and charts, the FT Money section pulls together the financial indicators which are most useful to the personal investor.

Published in the UK edition only, it is mirrored in the international edition by the Weekend Investor which appears as a double page spread in Section One.

Section Three
The FT Weekend edition is not just about business. Section Three offers an illustrated browse through the worlds of art, travel, sport and motoring, fashion and property. There are pages that examine the issues of body and mind, along with regular insights into the worlds of science and nature. The weekend FT continues to put the world's movers and shakers on the spot over lunch with the FT, while the new Off-Centre page offers a wide array of ideas, inventions, and issues. Regular features on esoteric tastes and exotic destinations retain their rightful place in FT Weekend. Taste buds are put to the test in the Food and Drink section, as the FT's gastronomic experts sample eateries and watering holes with gusto.

Financial Times Magazine
Financial Times Magazine is a beautifully designed publication describing how the world happens in the words of people who know. The writing in the magazine is about people and characters and events told in the form of story journalism - writing that engages the reader in essays, character sketches, personal experiences and insights into situations and customs.

How To Spend It Magazine
How To Spend It has set an award-winning standard of excellence for newspaper supplements and is published on the first Saturday of every month across Europe. Editorially it is tightly focused on how the educated, the affluent and the influential spend their time and money and it provides the Weekend FT reader with longer features on crucial personal buying choices and pursuits. It offers a stylish analysis of the axis where the corporate and cultural cross over.

Regular Supplements
Over the course of a year several additional supplements are produced, providing a specific editorial environment
for advertising. These include publications such as Money Guide, Residential Property and Leisure Travel which are published eight or nine times per year.