Yesterday we wrote about the appointment of new FT editor Roula Khalaf, the replacement for outgoing Lionel Barber, a man, colleagues said, who always seemed to be appearing in a movie about himself.
Correspondents ask what Khalaf’s appointment means for the direction of the paper, as if I would know. But let’s speculate.
One matter already in train long before Khalaf’s appointment was the sad demise of Markets Live, killed off recently despite it being an unusual and particularly good guide to market moves in the UK.
As far back as 2008 Neil Collins was writing in The Spectator about how good it was. It is already being missed.
A new editor might bring a fresh perspective on how subscribers are best served and think that the current output is a bit stocks light.
Or she might continue the trend of having the FT shift away from UK company news, something which saddens UK hacks and is a source of regular complaint from UK flaks.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall for Markets Live once the FT was bought by Nikkei.
One correspondent writes: “The FT seems to be moving away from anything market-connected. The new Ed is a (very) big picture woman. If the FT becomes more like the WSJ, it will be as successful in London as the Journal is.”
Ouch. And let’s hope our scribbler is completely wrong…
