Eric Pfanner of The New York Times writes about how the Financial Times has transformed itself into more of a digital publication as it celebrates its 125th anniversary this week.
Pfanner wrtites, “The F.T. was one of the first newspapers to charge readers for access to its Web site, which it did in 2002. It revamped its digital business model in 2007, moving to a ‘metered’ approach, in which readers get a certain number of articles free before they are asked to subscribe.
“Since 2007, The F.T.’s paying digital audience has tripled, and the metered approach has been adopted by a number of other newspapers, including The New York Times.
“With print circulation moving in the other direction — last year alone it fell about 15 percent — The F.T. recently accelerated its move away from paper. In January, Lionel Barber, the paper’s editor, sent a memo to the staff, detailing a plan to ‘ensure that we are serving a digital platform first and a newspaper second.’
“Under the plan, the print operations of The F.T. will be streamlined. While separate regional editions — for the United States, Britain, Continental Europe, Asia, India and the Middle East — will be maintained, there will be fewer nightly updates.”
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