FT’s Khalaf on her first year as editor

Roula Khalaf

Ray Snoddy of InPublishing examined the first year as editor for Roula Khalaf of the Financial Times.

Snoddy writes, “But for the FT editor, the big story of the paper’s evolution as a business has been the confirmation of the importance of subscriptions.

“‘This is the story of the media during the pandemic. If you have a subscriptions business, then your subscriptions business has done well. People want to read more so there is a real vote of confidence in the news business during the pandemic,’ Khalaf argues.

“FT subscriptions are up 7 per cent year-on year to 1.1 million – 950,000 of them digital, and levels of engagement have grown enormously.

“On the journalistic front, Khalaf believes the FT has been ‘nimble and on the story from the start.’

“The paper had someone in Wuhan at an early stage and then followed the pandemic from country to country and produced new products to drive engagement. They have included live blogs which follow the Covid story, effectively, 24 hours a day starting in London, then moving to New York time and on to Asia.”

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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.