Redesign And Marketing Push To Modernise Financial Times
The Financial Times has undergone a redesign backed by a multi-million pound marketing push in order to make the newspaper more accessible and modern.
The title now has a new masthead and more colour to its salmon pink pages, whilst The People section has been expanded and the Business Life and Arts pages have been moved to the final spread in section one.
In section two, corporate stories are now labelled by sector, and coverage of the financial markets will be stepped up. There are also more signposts to FT.com to steer readers online for additional content.
Weekday sports coverage is being cut back to accommodate an extra foreign page, but sports writer Matthew Engel will have a column in the Saturday magazine.
Lionel Barber, editor of the FT, said: “These changes are evolutionary and will provide extra news, deeper analysis and comment. By improving the navigation of the newspaper we’re aiming to help our busy readers get more out of the paper so that they understand that the Financial Times is not only an informative and entertaining read, but also an essential business tool.”
New writers will be joining the paper to write a weekly column, including Luke Johnson the Channel 4 chairman.
The redesign will continue in the weekend edition, which is now called FT Weekend, formerly Weekend FT, and will have a new headline font with seven pages devoted to the arts.
Changes will also be made to the FT Magazine, with more space and colour, a new Frontiers section and an expanded books section.
The paper’s redesign was the result of research, which indicated younger managers and non-readers felt the FT was inaccessible and old-fashioned.
The business broadsheet has seen its circulation follow a roller coaster curve in the past year, with sales dipping in the July to December 2006 quarter, before experiencing an upturn in the early part of 2007.
The title now boasts an ABC of 443,561 for the period of October 2006 to March 2007, up from 436,736 for the same period the year before.
Financial Times: 020 7873 3000 www.ft.com