By Robert Wall
LONDON--Britain's salmon-colored Financial Times faces a new
chapter in its 127-year history after owner Pearson PLC said it
plans to sell the paper to Japan's Nikkei Inc. media group for
about $1.32 billion.
Pearson has owned the Financial Times, known by many of its
readers simply as the FT, since 1957. Pearson stuck with the paper
through decades of advertising market cycles and, more recently,
years of falling print readership as consumers sought out their
news on the Internet.
In announcing the deal, Pearson Chief Executive John Fallon said
the industry had reached "an inflection point" and that "in this
new environment, the best way to ensure the FT's journalistic and
commercial success is for it to be part of a global, digital news
company."
While a recognized brand among business readers around the
world, the London-based paper is a relatively small player in its
home market in Britain, overshadowed in circulation numbers by such
popular broadsheets as the Telegraph and the Times of London, which
like The Wall Street Journal is published by News Corp.
A heavy tilt toward digital content and away from a reliance on
print circulation has boosted the FT's online subscription revenue.
Last year, it reported print and online subscriptions at almost
720,000, with digital subscriptions now 70% of the total.
Amid growing appetite for faster news online, the newspaper
began a push two years ago to compete more effectively with more
tradition financial newswires, adding staff to its fastFT service,
even as the traditional newsroom shrank.
Founded in 1888 as the London Financial Guide, it changed its
name shortly thereafter. It started printing using pink paper in
1893 to differentiate itself on the news stand.
Pearson was highly supportive of the newspaper's international
expansion with the launch of the European edition in 1979, said
former FT editor Richard Lambert, who ran the paper for a decade
from 1991.
"In those days the FT was quite a modest economic entity, so it
could have bust the company," he said in an interview. Mr. Lambert
said Pearson had been "a model owner. They gave editors complete
independence and they backed them up when they got in troubled
times."
The FT now publishes regional editions in Britain, the U.S.,
Continental Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Lionel Barber, its
editor for the past decade, previously was the paper's U.S.
managing editor.
In a bid to woo high-end advertisers, the FT in 1994 launched
its "How to Spend It" supplement. It gained a reputation for
high-end fashion advertising, featuring expensive holiday
destinations and tech gadgets.
The company's weekend paper also introduced its "Lunch with the
FT" interview more than 20 years ago. The column features one of
its journalists interviewing a person of note over a meal. Lunch
partners have included a diverse set of personalities from Chinese
dissident artist Ai Weiwei to former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman
Alan Greenspan. The paper generally pays, and publishes an itemized
tab.
The paper forked out just over GBP3.82 to entertain rapper Sean
"P-Diddy" Combs in 2004. A recent lunch with British media tycoon
Richard Desmond, however, ran to GBP758.81, which included a GBP580
bottle of Chateau Palmer 1983.
"I think this is a pretty good outcome," said Andrew Gowers, who
preceded Mr. Barber as editor. He said the new owners should
consider giving specific assurances that the FT's journalists will
remain free from interference, but "I can't see much that would go
wrong with this."
Nikkei Chairman and group Chief Executive Tsuneo Kita said, "We
share the same journalistic values" as the FT.
Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com
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