3 mins

The Times Business: An Overview

Business Editor, The Times
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We speak to journalists like Richard Fletcher, Business Editor at The Times, to learn more about their desks, their teams and how their days are structured, all of which we store in their profile pages on Roxhill. Read on to get a sneak peek of Richard’s profile page.

A journalist's profile overview

There’re tons of journalist databases and directories, but there is only one that goes beyond contact details. You can discover journalists’ coverage and more in our innovative PR software. We categorise articles by topic, companies and sectors, and our colourful visualisation lets you process the information faster – who doesn’t love pie charts like these? Our app also features in-built social feeds, so you can always keep an eye on what journalists like Richard talk about.

Business Editor, The Times

Richard authors the morning edition of the newspaper’s Business Briefing, as well as editing The Times’ trusted and comprehensive business coverage. View what topics he published about in the last six months below.

A day in the life of The Times business desk

See a typical day at The Times below and explore when Richard wants to hear from you. Gain valuable insight into the best time for your email to land with a bang, or when he and his business desk team want to be left in peace to publish their stories.

Start of the day
6 AM
Key Stories

The early team starts pulling key stories for the business editors' 8 AM call

7 AM
ONS Statistics

The day is more front end loaded than previously, with ONS statistics now coming out at 7 AM rather than the traditional 9.30 AM. Richard’s Morning Briefing newsletter is in readers’ inboxes by 8am at the latest (Digital business editor Martin Strydom does the lunchtime email).

8 AM
Stories For The Day

Editors meet at 8 AM to discuss the main digital stories for the day and how they will develop them for the website and phone app.

9:15 AM
Business Desk Meeting

Richard has a call at 9:15 AM with the whole business desk to talk about the big stories and how they are covering them. This is now a virtual call.

9:15 - 11:30 AM
Editorial Team Meeting

Between the 9:15 call and 11:30 AM, the senior editorial team have internal meetings to finalise ideas for the stories being published on digital channels.

11:30 AM
Printed Stories

At 11:30, the business desk reassembles to make decisions and share early thoughts about how these stories will appear in print the following day.

9:30 - 11 AM
Finalising Print Edition

They start finalising the print edition for the next day between 3:30 and 4 PM. Most of these stories have already been published digitally so the focus is on the layout of the paper. This begins to look like a real product at 6:30 PM. First edition sent soon after.

10 PM
Sub Label
Second Edition

Second edition is sent at 10 PM - pushed through to 11 PM if big story breaking.

Before joining The Times in 2014 as business editor, Richard worked as a financial journalist across a range of titles, including Sunday Business, The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Times Business section. As well as editing The Times’ trusted and comprehensive business coverage, Richard authors the morning edition of the newspaper’s Business Briefing.