Rob Grimshaw of the Financial Times writes for The Economist about the growing influence of social media in today’s business journalism.
Grimshaw writes, “At the Financial Times, we recognized early on that the continued success of our business depended on our ability to adapt to changing reader habits. Our response to audience fragmentation was to create a multi-channel subscription model that allows our subscribers to move easily across formats at their convenience. A single log-in and password gives access on desktop, tablet and smartphone at any time.
“This focus on flexibility in the face of fragmentation has paid dividends. Digital now represents over 30% of total FT revenues and with over 300,000 digital subscribers we have now reached the point where we have more digital subscribers than print circulation. Our channel-neutral strategy has proven digital to be a supplemental source of new FT subscribers, and this year the FT reached a total paid circulation of 600,000, the highest circulation in our 124-year history and rising.
“We believe that this ability to adapt will continue to be vital to our success because there are undoubtedly further shifts in reader habits to come. One of the most important factors is likely to be social media, which is challenging the fundamentals of news publishing by tying readers up elsewhere. One in six internet minutes is now spent on a social site of some description and the proportion is rising.”
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