How FT Alphaville has grown and evolved

Mădălina Ciobanu of Journalism.co.uk interviewed Paul Murphy, the founding editor of FT Alpahville, on the 10-year anniversary of the site’s launch.

Ciobanu writes, “Because Alphaville launched during a period where mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of companies were booming, M&A became its beat. Other organisations covering financial news set up similar initiatives, such as the Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal and Reuters’ DealZone.

“But the boom came to a halt in 2008 when the financial crisis hit, and Alphaville was able to shift its focus to covering the credit markets. Since then, it has further diversified its coverage to write about topics such as the Eurozone crisis, the possible property bubble in China, or apparent fraud in the financial technology (fintech) industry in the UK.

“‘We turned our attention with the news flow and that became the defining thing, a flexible platform that had a group of young, talented writers who were given lots of freedom and the ability to turn their attention to the fresh stories or simply, to their own obsessions and interests.

“‘Why are we still around after 10 years? It’s because of this flexibility.’

“Seven people in New York, London and Mumbai now write full-time for Alphaville, with other FT writers providing occasional input. They publish between six and eight posts every day, depending on the news agenda.”

Read more here.