Categories: OLD Media Moves

FT adds clarification to column after inquiry

The Financial Times has added a clarification to a column by former U.S. energy secretary Bill Richardson that ran on Friday after Talking Biz News pointed out an undisclosed conflict of interest.

Richardson works as an adviser for an initiative that APCO is being paid to promote, and his affiliation with APCO – chairman of APCO Worldwide’s Global Political Strategies group – is not stated in the column.

In the column, Richardson touted the economic and geopolitical benefits of exporting U.S. natural gas, noting that Ukraine and Poland have a lot at stake.

The FT failed to disclose that Richardson works for APCO, a consulting firm that was hired for an estimated $330,000 to improve the image of a project for the construction of an LNG terminal in Ukraine.

You may read more about the assignment here. And Richardson’s bio on APCO’s website is here.

The clarification states: Bill Richardson is an adviser to Apco, which has in the past undertaken work for the Ukrainian State Agency for Investment.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.