Financial Times

The Financial Times (FT) is a British daily newspaper, available in broadsheet print and digitally, specializing in business and economic news. Headquartered in London, it is owned by the Japanese holding company Nikkei and maintains major editorial offices in Britain, the United States, and continental Europe. Pearson, which had owned the paper since 1957, sold it to Nikkei in July 2015 for £844 million (US$1.32 billion). In 2019, the FT reported one million paying subscribers, with three-quarters of them digital. By 2023, that figure had grown to 1.3 million subscribers, of which 1.2 million were digital. The paper concentrates on financial journalism and economic analysis rather than general news. It also runs an annual book award and a "Person of the Year" feature.

The paper was founded in January 1888 as the *London Financial Guide* and renamed the *Financial Times* a month later. James Sheridan, along with his brother and Horatio Bottomley, launched it to cover city business in competition with the *Financial News*. After nearly five decades of rivalry, the two papers merged in 1945 under Brendan Bracken, making the FT one of the largest business newspapers globally.

Globalization from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries spurred the FT’s editorial growth, adding opinion columns, special reports, political cartoons, letters from readers, book reviews, technology articles, and global politics coverage. The paper is known for its light-orange (salmon) newsprint. It is complemented by a lifestyle magazine (*FT Magazine*), a weekend edition (*FT Weekend*), and several industry publications.

The FT’s editorial stance is rooted in economic liberalism, especially support for free trade and free markets. Since its founding, it has backed liberal democracy and favored classically liberal policies from governments worldwide. Its newsroom operates independently from its editorial board, and the paper is considered a newspaper of record. Given its history of economic commentary, the FT publishes various financial indices, most notably the FTSE All-Share Index. Since the late 20th century, its in-depth coverage has attracted a white-collar, educated, and financially literate readership. As a result, it is traditionally seen as a centrist to centre-right liberal, neoliberal, and conservative-liberal newspaper. The FT is based at Bracken House on 1 Friday Street, near London’s financial district, where its publishing house, corporate center, and main editorial office are located.

**History**

**Origins** The FT debuted as the *London Financial Guide* on 10 January 1888, changing its name to the *Financial Times* on 13 February that year. It billed itself as the friend of "The Honest Financier, the Bona Fide Investor, the Respectable Broker, the Genuine Director, and the Legitimate Speculator" and was a four-page journal. Its readership was the City of London’s financial community, and its only rival was the slightly older (founded in 1884) and more daring *Financial News*. On 2 January 1893, the FT began printing on light pink paper to stand out from the similarly named *Financial News*. The pink tint came from China clay sourced from the Bodelva clay pit near St Austell, Cornwall; at the time, it was cheaper not to bleach the paper (other papers like *The Sporting Times* did the same), though today it costs more because the paper must be dyed specially.

**Purchase by the Berry brothers** The Berry brothers, Lord Camrose and Gomer Berry (later Lord Kemsley), bought the *Financial Times* in 1919.

**Purchase by Brendan Bracken; merger with the *Financial News*** In 1945, Brendan Bracken acquired the FT from Lord Camrose and, after 57 years of competition, merged it with the *Financial News* to create a single six-page newspaper. The FT had a higher circulation, while the *Financial News* contributed much of the editorial talent. The "Lex" column was also taken from the *Financial News*. This purchase and merger made Bracken "the effective founding father of the modern Financial Times, Britain's highest quality daily newspaper."

**Gordon Newton and "direct recruitment"** Gordon Newton, a Cambridge graduate, became editor in 1949 and introduced a policy—then unusual in Fleet Street—of directly recruiting new university graduates, mainly from Oxbridge, as trainee journalists. Many went on to distinguished careers in journalism and British public life, forming the backbone of the paper’s editorial strengths until the 1990s. The first such "direct recruit" was future leading British economist Andrew Shonfield; the second was (later Sir) William Rees-Mogg, who later edited *The Times* after its acquisition by Roy Thomson. Other FT Oxbridge recruits included future Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson. This recruitment policy was unpopular with the National Union of Journalists and ended in 1966 after the hiring of Richard Lambert from Oxford, who later became an FT editor.

**Purchase by Pearson and growth into a global newspaper** Pearson bought the paper in 1957. Over time, the FT expanded in size, readership, and coverage, establishing correspondents in cities worldwide as the global economy revived. As cross-border trade and capital flows increased in the 1970s, the FT began international expansion, aided by technological advances and the growing use of English as an international language.