UK: FT.com focuses on "quality not quantity"
Posted by Alisa Zykova on October 28, 2008 at 10:29 AM
As we reported yesterday, FT.com has launched the Long Room page on the Alphaville blog. In an interview today, Managing Editor Robert Grimshaw reported that the website will not be participating in monthly traffic measures by the UK's Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCes), because its focus is on "quality not quantity."
Grimshaw said that online news sources in the UK that have cut back
on advertising and stopped charging for their content may experience
difficulties in the future in the event of declines in advertising revenue.
"We think it's philosophically right. We've produced some hugely valuable content and we know for a fact that our users are prepared to pay for it," says Grimshaw. "It's about using the flexibility of the access model and the business model overall."
Grimshaw thinks that his site's competitors are too reliant on the advertising industry, whereas FT.com aspires to "carve out its own path online," according to Journalism.co.uk.
Long Room's content will adhere to FT.com's business structure and will be "high-level" and "intellectually charged", but will not propagate "expertise."
In March, the site attained 7.1 million users, although it is more interested in the 500,000 to a million senior users.
Source: Journalism.co.uk
"We think it's philosophically right. We've produced some hugely valuable content and we know for a fact that our users are prepared to pay for it," says Grimshaw. "It's about using the flexibility of the access model and the business model overall."
Grimshaw thinks that his site's competitors are too reliant on the advertising industry, whereas FT.com aspires to "carve out its own path online," according to Journalism.co.uk.
Long Room's content will adhere to FT.com's business structure and will be "high-level" and "intellectually charged", but will not propagate "expertise."
In March, the site attained 7.1 million users, although it is more interested in the 500,000 to a million senior users.
Source: Journalism.co.uk
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