FT reopens LA bureau, Grimes named bureau chief

The Financial Times is reopening its Los Angeles bureau after nearly a decade and has appointed veteran correspondent Christopher Grimes as the new bureau chief

The reopening is the latest move by the FT and follows the reopening of the Houston bureau.

In his new role, Grimes will cover entertainment giants such as Disney, but also the burgeoning ecosystem of online influencers and TikTok stars in Southern California who are reshaping the industry.

Grimes moves to Los Angeles from Tokyo where he spent four years as a top editor at Nikkei Asia, the English-language publication of the FT’s media partner and owner. Before that, Grimes spent nearly two decades as a reporter and editor in the FT’s two primary newsrooms, New York and London, where he held senior editorial roles and reported on the US media industry.

“Reopening our Los Angeles bureau is part of our ongoing effort to better serve the ‘Global Americans’ who subscribe to the FT in the US,” said Peter Spiegel, the U.S. managing editor, in a statement. “There are few American industries more global than media and entertainment, and appointing Chris, one of the FT’s most respected journalists and most engaging writers, is a sign of how seriously we’re taking the challenge.”

The reopening in LA gives the FT six bureaus in the U.S. In addition to new bureaus in Los Angeles and Houston, the FT has correspondents in Washington, San Francisco and Chicago as well as its U.S. headquarters in New York.