Big news brings only tiny returns for publishers

Publishers need to find additional sources of revenue and, worryingly, the new generation of so-called “distributed content” services, which held such promise a year ago, are not cutting the mustard. Services such as Facebook Instant Articles, Apple News and Google Accelerated Mobile Pages were supposed to make it easier for publishers to monetise their journalism.

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Financial Times acquires Silicon Valley company GIS Planning

Press Release:  The Financial Times announces the acquisition of GIS Planning, a San Francisco-based internet technology company providing organisations with data and intelligence on foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic development in North America.

The acquisition of GIS Planning strengthens the FT Group’s portfolio of specialist products and services. GIS Planning’s ZoomProspector Enterprise and ZoomProspector.com join a stable of successful FDI subscription services which includes fDi Magazine, fDi Markets and fDi Benchmark

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How the FT grows subscriptions by focusing on journalism

It’s a solid business model, and combined with its unique position in Europe makes its acquisition by Nikkei in July of last year easy to understand. There isn’t another publication quite like the Financial Times, and its 805,000 paying subscribers are testament to that. Speaking at Web Summit earlier this week, its chief product and information officer Cait O’Riordan explained how the publication’s focus on accurate journalism encourages people to move along the funnel from free user to paid subscriber

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The Financial Times Decides to Get Creative With Ad-Blocker Blocking

The Financial Times is certainly not the first media company to test out approaches to combating the rise of ad-blocking technology, but its new approach might be the most creative one yet. On Wednesday, the newspaper began blanking out, for some users, a percentage of words in articles symbolizing the percentage of the company’s revenue that comes from advertising

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FT takes controlling stake in content marketing company Alpha Grid

The Financial Times is to significantly boost its advertiser-funded video and digital content by acquiring specialist firm Alpha Grid. Alpha Grid produces branded content across broadcast, video, digital and social as well as events. The FT is aiming to ramp up its content marketing operation, housed within a new studio operation FT2 launched in September, which […]

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Pearson agrees to sale of FT Group to Nikkei Inc. for £844m

Pearson is today announcing that it has agreed the sale of FT Group to Nikkei Inc. for a gross consideration of £844 million, payable in cash. Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy. It includes the FT newspaper, FT.com, How to Spend It, FT Labs, FTChinese, the Confidentials and Financial Publishing (including The Banker, Investors Chronicle, MandateWire, Money-Media, Medley Global Advisors and more)

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