
The Financial Times and the Future of Journalism - jonathansizz
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-financial-times-and-the-future-of-journalism
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dredmorbius
What I've found looking at the _Financial Times_ is that it's among the media
sources at the very top of my list based on mentions of the _Foreign Policy_
's top 100 global thinkers mentions. Its sister publication, _The Economist_ ,
does even better. The only publication doing better yet is _The New York
Times_ , though _its_ results are exceptionally skewed by references to Paul
Krugman (a _Times_ columnist and blogger).

The results are based on searches for the names of the FP global thinkers
members, and was a bit of research I'd conducted for my own benefit looking
for sources of potentially interesting discussion and insight online,
including social media, mainstream and altnernative publications, academic,
and other institutions.

Not a subscriber, though I'm considering it.

Details:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/trackin...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3hp41w/tracking_the_conversation_fp_global_100_thinkers/)

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luxpir
Going to try to apply the £1/$1/€1 trial subscription to my startup - at 80%
conversion, it sounds worth a shot, even if it's nowhere near there. The idea
of forcing a small commitment seems solid, and is far from new.

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zhte415
Good writing.

Creative writing.

And delivering this multiple ways. They have an audience that works at
multiple levels.

Universities - Send free or hugely discounted copies of the newspaper to
universities or departments with people likely to stick to their content.

Free giveaways - Station people at underground stations across London with
copies. It's more attractive than Metro.

Corporate subscription - If a company buys unmetered access for all staff,
this is really habit building, and lets people explore. Aside from the above,
this is how I was hooked not to give it up, as the value becomes enforced via
exploring. This is very similar to the point the article makes "The idea is
that for a nominal amount you can read as much as you like, and that creates a
habit."

Editorial - Reflects this. It is not 'city boy' speak. It makes efforts of
similar publications' business sections look like shoddily written and put
together opinion pieces appeasing their respective editors across a spectrum
of readers. [I'd contrast this to The Economist which often lacks the quality
The FT has for insight. In many cases it is FT Lite.]

Actually useful - Walk around a bank and not see a copy. When working in a job
in the City it was encouraged for new hires to include it (and other sources)
in daily/weekly brainstorming meetings. This includes toilet breaks sitting
reading the FT while putting the world to rest.

A lot of content is actually free - A lot of the non-daily-news sections are
always free online. Particularly editorial, multimedia, things via RSS (they
still do RSS).

Clearly I'm sold. The reasons above are why. Tangentially, they seem to have
very low staff turnover and a clear vision and culture for achieving their
vision.

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blueyes
I'm surprised and disappointed at the quality of reporting here by Cassidy,
and the quality of the quotes by the FT's CEO Ridding. Cassidy is playing
softball, letting the executive get away with the usual corporate propaganda:

“Number one is they are fundamentally supportive and excited by the strategy,”
Ridding said. “Like us, they believe in the value of quality journalism, both
as a mission and also as a business. They also think the language of business
is English, and if you are going to be a global player you need a strong
English-language position, or voice, or publication. So it made perfect sense
from their strategic global perspective.”

Seriously? Are we supposed to read this and think it's news? News
organizations are sometimes guilty of a certain hypocrisy, going easier on
themselves, and each other, while they treat the rest of the world with more
skepticism.

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thesumofall
I'm on and off their subscription for a couple of years now. What I noticed is
that they make it extremely challenging to cancel. While that doesn't matter
for the first subscription it certainly is something that makes me hesitate to
come back to them. In the end their journalism usually wins me over, though :)

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dredmorbius
The journalism's good. Sticky subscriptions (or other sales models) really
_are_ a turn-off though.

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illumen
They implemented shareware.

