UK: Financial Times has increase in circulation

Posted by Carolyn Lo on April 14, 2008 at 9:03 AM

Last week, the Financial Times, which was named Newspaper of the Year at the British Press Awards, has a month on month and year on year increase in sales in spite of the financial woes in the newspaper industry, becoming somewhat of an "anomaly," says Businessweek's Jon Fine.

It lost over $60 million in 2003 and more than $17 million in 2004, but its circulation is up 1.47% to 454,937 and its six-month average is up 1.12% year on year to 448,540 copies.

With a total newsroom staff of around 500, the Financial Times may attribute its success to its targeted business model, according to Fine. Unlike the Wall Street Journal which is becoming more generalized, the Financial Times is a niche paper.

But will the Financial Times continue to see success even with the U.S. edition of the Wall Street Journal being printed in London?

"We are not going to be mesmerized by The Wall Street Journal," says Times' editor Lionel Barber. "I am not sure it's a huge advantage right now, in various parts of the world, to be an American newspaper."

Source: Brand Republic, BusinessWeek