Call it the success stories of the British press. Last week we looked at the stimulating story of the Economist that is harvesting global praises both from its business performances and its journalistic insight. It is last edition, Business Week did the same for the Financial Times. Here are quick facts:
- in 2007, the pink austere business daily turned profit of $60m for a revenue of $600m. This come after a $60m loss in 2003 and $17m in 2004.
- interestingly enough, overall staff remains in the same numbers thanks to increase in digital team that has compensated cuts in the print. Its current headcount is about 600, less that half of the NY Times for instance.
- as for The Economist global view proven to be a strong concept. The FT has four edition plus a Chinese language website ; circulation is 150,000 in the US (vs. 1.7m for the Wall Street Journal) ; 140,000 in UK, and 160,000 for the rest of the world.
- advertising endorses this global reach : not only it increases by 10% last year, but also three quarter of the ads appears in more than one edition.
In the coming year, the FT will face a dual competition. The WSJ is willing to beef-up its international presence (if someone has a global view, Rupert Murdoch does) and the New York Times could try to become a global brand by taking over the International Herald Tribune’s operation and putting its own name on the international paper.
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