The Financial Times is on a roll

James Robinson of The Guardian writes about The Financial Times and editor Lionel Barber and the recent changes at the paper.

Robinson wrote, “That is in the future, but what of the present? Barber, an FT journalist for 27 years – 16 of them spent abroad – clambered into the editor’s chair in November 2005, after Andrew Gowers had left it following ‘strategic differences’ with owner Pearson, and is credited with restoring the paper’s fortunes. The FT has returned to profit (thanks, in part, to a hefty price rise, from £1 to £1.50 on weekdays), sales are up in the UK and abroad, and FT.com is also growing. There have been design tweaks, and more fundamental changes are planned as it prepares to meet the challenge of a reinvigorated Wall Street Journal, now part of Rupert Murdoch’s mighty media empire. But more on that later.

“Barber’s first task was to restore the editorial reputation of the ‘Pink’un’, which many in the City, and a few on Fleet Street, insisted had been tarnished by the introduction of a more aggressive journalistic culture. A series of speculative stories, one of which resulted in a £300,000 payout to stockbroker Collins Stewart, was seized on by many as an example of failing standards.”

“‘I don’t want to talk about the past,’ declares Barber, who worked in Washington for a decade and Brussels for six years. ‘But if you look at what we’ve done you can see we’ve addressed the weaknesses that we suffered from.’

“The implication is clear: those who claimed the paper had lost its way under Gowers, who laid the foundation for international expansion but was accused of taking his eye off the ball in its home market, may have had a point.”

Read more here.