Financial Times moving to single print edition

The Financial Times plans a path-breaking changes to the production of its printed newspaper that appear to be the penultimate step towards becoming a digital-only publication, reports Roy Greenslade of The Guardian in London.

Greenslade writes, “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.”

Read more here.