An early shake-up at the FT under very new editor Roula Khalaf. The paper, [it tells us here](http://news.roxhillmedia.com/tomorrows-business/pr-21-01-2020), plans to sharpen coverage of the City of London.
That move was greeted with two reactions. 1) Great. 2) It’s about time.
For ages the perception has been that the FT had stopped caring about the City and wider UK business.
It saw itself as a global brand, bringing news from far flung corners. All well and good, but worthy and not what us locals actually want.
One flak said the FT seemed to have forgotten that a huge part of its constituency have their roots in London and New York. The paper was in danger of becoming stateless.
One hack said: “Roula Khalaf is seen as having come from the foreign pages and as having foreign coverage as her focus. It’s actually not true – but it is a perception she will have to address both internally and externally.”.
Here’s a selection of what others would like to see, in no particular order.
1) Ditch the baffling “How to spend it” – a magazine that seems to be aimed at damaging society and the FT’s brand.
2) Bring back Markets Live; do more Fast FT (it’s great); more video (they are sporadically good at it).
3) More Wirecard — brilliant investigative, complex, technical journalism.
4) Better hustle on the key UK sectors (they used to lead everywhere. Now, not so much). Put a greater value on scoops – hire Mark Kleinman.
5) Shake-up the op-ed pages. The old names are fine; we’d like some new ones.
6) Drop the anti-Brexit tone. Move on.
7) Ask more of your hacks. Make life harder for flaks.
8) Find your inner tabloid – get campaigning. Jonathan Ford has done some excellent stuff on private equity, HBOS and accountants. How about a coordinated defence of public markets for starters?
9) Find a forum for small caps. Doesn’t have to be in the paper but there’s got to be an opportunity somewhere for the pink’un on the back of Mifid.
