Edmund Lee of Re/code interviewed Financial Times editor in chief Lionel Barber about the paper’s plans in the United States and its growth.
Here is an excerpt:
Despite the fact that newspapers are declining, when it comes to business news, there are more outlets than ever. What sets the FT apart?
We’re not an American media organization. We’re offering not just a picture of Europe, we’re offering a picture of the whole rest of the world, and bringing that to America in a way that I just don’t think others do. Because our traditional rivals are seeing the world largely through American eyes, and we’re not. Also, our coverage tries to establish the connections between business, politics, finance and economics, the whole thing, it’s integrated. The comment part of the FT is also increasingly important to our competitive edge, and I think that’s going to be increasingly important to all news organizations.
You have more online paying readers than print readers.
Two thirds.
At what point do you think all your readers will just be online?
It’s now about 470,000 paid subscribers digitally and 220,000-ish print. When I started it was 75,000 digital, 440,000 print. I still see there’s a future in print. Print still has value. There’s millions of dollars of advertising wrapped up in that. Print is here for us for a while, and what we have to do is keep that vibrant.
Read more here.
