Rona Fairhead, the chairman and chief executive of the Financial Times Group, is to stand down less than two months after missing out in a battle to take the reins at parent company Pearson.
Financial Times Group chief executive Rona Fairhead to stand down
Why is Pearson paying Rona Fairhead to go?
Rona Fairhead's decision to quit Pearson is understandable. She's been on the board for 12 years and was passed over for the chief executive's job.
Having been finance director and then chief of the FT Group, she deserves a decent party as she leaves.
Financial Times Deutschland finally makes it into the black
Auf wiedersehen, debt. Financial newspaper FT Deutschland never made a profit in 12 years but its 309 employees made sure its last edition was in the black. On a final black front page (hat tip, Die Welt's Holger Zchäpitz), under a title piece changed to "Fi n al Times Deutschland", is the headline Endlich Schwartz which roughly translates as "finally black". FT Deutschland was founded in 2000 by FT publisher Pearson but it sold its 50% stake to Gruner + Jahr in 2008. Highlights of the last FTD edition include, on the website (scroll to the bottom of the front page), a photo of the whole Hamburg-based team bowing in mourning, with an apology to advertisers, PRs, politicians and readers.
Recovery, what recovery? Spate of profit warnings shakes City
Some retailers were expected to issue profit warnings after worse-than-expected Christmas trading, but some big names below shocked the City, sending share prices sharply lower:
FT Group profits rise 17%
Pearson has reported a 21% slump in its overall operating profit for 2013, as its core US education business continues to be hit by the "worst trading conditions" seen in decades. However, profits at the company's FT Group, home of the Financial Times, were up 17% to £55m.
FT Group, which includes the Financial Times and Pearson's 50% stake in the Economist Group, reported sales of £449m, down 1% year-on-year, but operating profits were up 17% on 2012.
British media group Pearson warns of 2013 profits hit by restructuring costs
Financial Times owner Pearson warned on Thursday that its 2013 earnings would be lower than expected due to higher restructuring costs and poor demand for its North America education business in its key selling quarter.
Pearson, the 170-year-old education and media group which is in the middle of a transformation under new leadership, said US state budget pressures, fewer enrolments and higher investment needs had hit its margins in the fourth quarter.
Financial Times Group chief executive Rona Fairhead to stand down
Rona Fairhead, the chairman and chief executive of the Financial Times Group, is to stand down less than two months after missing out in a battle to take the reins at parent company Pearson.
Pearson faces investor revolt over executive bonuses
Publisher Pearson has become the latest company to become the focus of shareholder protests over boardroom bonuses after one in three of its investors failed to support its pay plans.
It is the latest sign that shareholders are keeping up the pressure on executive pay after protests at the pay policies of companies such as BP, Barclays and Astra Zeneca.
Continue reading...Financial Times circulation reaches all-time high at 677,000 total
The circulation of the Financial Times has reached an all-time high. It is 13% up year-on-year to more than 677,000 across print and online.
And two-thirds of that total (455,000) are digital subscribers, which represents a digital audience increase over last year of 33%. The FT also has more than 290,000 corporate users.
Continue reading...Lionel Barber: Its adapt or die frankly and thats what were doing
In 1999, when I worked at the Financial Timess head office by the Thames, its vast open-plan newsroom, clocks showing different time zones and huge numbers of shirt and tie-wearing men made it seem more like a bank than a proper newspaper. Now, most of what was once affectionately known as Fleet Street has aped the Pink Uns open plan and integrated workspace although there was still a notable absence of women in the early-morning newsroom when I returned at the end of last week.
In other ways too, the FT has mirrored the newspaper industry's recent trajectory. When Lionel Barber took over as editor nine years ago, the paper sold more than twice as many copies worldwide as the 210,000 sold in August. At the same time, digital subscriptions have grown from 75,000 to 455,000, making a far larger total readership. Yet today Barber is launching a new-look print edition. Amid such signs of decline just 63,936 copies sold in the UK why invest in print at all?
Continue reading...Micklethwait: Merkel listens to the Economists audio app in the car
Asked what business model he is pursuing, John Micklethwait doesnt mention a traditional publishing rival or perhaps a digital news upstart - instead the editor-in-chief of the Economists reply cites pay-TV giants such as HBO or Sky.
The 171-year old news magazine is regarded as having made a success of navigating the transition from print to multi-platform publisher, and for Micklethwait it is the paid-subscription model that will triumph.
Continue reading...Putin's foreign media law will hit fashion magazines
Non-Russian publishers face ownership restrictions
The foreign owners of magazines distributed in Russia may have to sell their stakes or risk falling foul of a new law introduced by the president, Vladimir Putin, reports the Times.
From 2016, when the law takes effect, non-Russian publishers will be allowed to hold only a 20% stake in Russian publications.
Continue reading...South African newspaper publisher considering £28m offer
Blackstar investment company wants to obtain full ownership of Times Media Group
South Africa’s largest English-language newspaper publisher, Times Media Group (TMG), is considering an offer from an investment company, Blackstar, to acquire total ownership.
Blackstar currently owns 32.5% of TMG shares and intends to acquire the remainder. It has offered about £28m in cash and shares for the 67.5% of TMG it doesn’t already own.
Continue reading...Pearson to sell the Financial Times? I really don't think so...
New rumours, reported by Bloomberg, suggest FT may be sold off for £1bn
Pearson is said, yet again, to be exploring a sale of the Financial Times. How many times down the years have I read that rumour? And how many times must I dismiss it as speculative nonsense?
The latest report of the possible sale can be found on Bloomberg. Citing “people familiar with the matter”, it states that “potential buyers” for the newspaper are being sounded out by Pearson.
Continue reading...Financial Times sold to Japanese media group Nikkei for £844m
Sale by Pearson does not include 50% stake in the Economist or the newspaper’s Southwark Bridge headquarters
The 127-year-old Financial Times, whose pink pages are as much a symbol of the City as the pinstriped suit, is to be sold to a Japanese financial media company by its British owners for £844m.
The sale to Nikkei by Pearson, which comes after years of speculation over its long-term commitment to owning the FT, demonstrates the eagerness of cash-rich international investors looking to expand into a financial news landscape dominated by the English language.
Related: FT's new owners Nikkei are cut from the same template
Related: Lionel Barber: ‘It’s adapt or die frankly and that’s what we’re doing’
Related: The Guardian view on media globalisation: good news for the Financial Times | Editorial
Continue reading...Journalists wonder if the Financial Times is safe in Nikkei's hands
Commentators question whether FT’s editorial independence can be assured
Why has Nikkei bought the Financial Times? What’s the logic of the Japanese media company’s very expensive acquisition? Business commentators, while acknowledging the financial sense in Pearson’s sell-off, appear concerned about the FT’s editorial independence in future.
As far as the FT’s own Tokyo-based writers, Kana Inagaki and Leo Lewis, are concerned, it’s all about international expansion, “an attempt to turn a heavily domestic name into a global brand and survive the shift to digital journalism.”
“Nor would readers of Nikkei be acutely aware that Japanese-made airbags have been blowing up in the US since 2004, a story that has long preoccupied the New York Times.
Mainstream Japanese journalism is not corrupt, but it is respectful, like the culture around it. Anglo-Saxon journalistic traditions are not, at their best, respectful of anything.
“We all wish the 500 FT journalists the very best as they enter a new era... One trusts that a great British product will not be stifled by the deeply unadventurous hand of Japanese publishers.”
Continue reading...Financial Times to seek new London HQ next year
FT Group chief executive John Ridding says paper will also look to hire more staff following its acquisition by Japanese media group Nikkei
The Financial Times will begin looking for a replacement for its Thames-side London offices in the new year and look to hire more staff following its acquisition by Japanese media group Nikkei.
The offices were not included in the £844m sale of the FT by Pearson, which is to lease the building back at commercial terms to Nikkei.
Related: Financial Times sold to Japanese media group Nikkei for £844m
Continue reading...Pearson, the Financial Times and the culture of modern capitalism
Letter to the FT by Daily Mail group director on the difference between business ownership based on ‘long term value’ and the need to make quick profits
A short letter in Wednesday’s Financial Times makes for fascinating reading. Stimulated by Pearson’s sale of the FT to Nikkei, it poses profound questions about the nature of modern capitalism:
Sir, The biggest mistake Pearson has made in the past 25 years occurred in the early 1990s when the representatives of the original owners retired.
Pearson then owned a collection of the finest assets in the world — besides the Financial Times, there was Chateau Latour, Lazards, Madame Tussauds, Penguin and Longman.
Continue reading...Pearson sells Economist Group stake for £469m
Existing shareholder Exor increases its holding from 4.7% to 43.4% to become the largest single shareholder in the publishing group
Pearson has sold its 50% stake in the Economist Group, publisher of the Economist, to existing shareholders for £469m in cash.
The deal, a fait accompli following Pearson’s sale of the Financial Times to Nikkei for £844m last month, will see a major change in the power structure of the major shareholders that control the Economist Group.
Continue reading...The Economist becomes a family affair
Rupert Pennant-Rea sat pensively in the 14th floor boardroom above London’s upmarket St James’s and soaked up the grand views across Green Park. Colleagues greeted him warmly as they shuffled into the room. As chairman and a former editor of the Economist, Pennant-Rea was acutely aware of just what a momentous decision his board was about to take.
It was last Monday evening and the magazine and research group was poised to agree to support a deal that would result in only the second significant change of ownership in the Economist’s 172-year history.
Continue reading...