The proliferation of people posting their views on the internet has caused Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, to rethink opening up its FT.com website.
Chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino, announcing a strong 19% rise in annual profits to £502m, admitted that FT.com is likely to continue to rely on subscriptions, retaining its so-called "chargewall". "As debate online has become more diffuse - hundreds of thousands or millions of voices on each topic - it has become less helpful in a way," she said. "The trend now seems to be some sort of mediation and we think we might have a role there."
Her comments represent a U-turn. At the time of the company's interim results in July she voiced concerns that the FT's ability to take part in the online debate was being hampered by subscription rates. But yesterday she said that the 90,000 subscribers to FT.com represent a "rarefied audience" including senior figures in business and politics. "We have found that to some extent with the quality of audience we have got we can provoke the discussion". "This is not a typical online discussion where people do not reveal who they are," she said of some recent FT.com forums.
Last year the Financial Times newspaper and website saw profits jump by £9m to £11m due to rising advertising and a raft of cost cuts - including axing 50 journalists and the creation of an integrated web and newspaper newsroom. Sales were up 8% to £238m, with advertising revenues increasing 9%, and the advertising market remained buoyant going into 2007.
Dame Marjorie defended the FT's practice of printing three international editions - in Europe, Asia and the US - alongside its UK paper, despite speculation that it loses money on all of them. The US, European and UK editions sell about 140,000 copies, the Asian edition pulls in a mere 20,000. But she said advertisers found the different editions attractive with almost half of the FT's advertising booked for all four editions. Despite this, any further segmentation of the FT Group - such as into new specific industry areas - will be done online. Pearson reported a record set of annual results with sales of £4.4bn, up from £4bn in the previous year . Profits at Penguin Books increased to £66m from £60m as sales rose £44m to £848m on the back of strong sellers such as The Kite Runner and A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.
There has been talk that Pearson might sell off either the FT or Penguin. Dame Marjorie stressed there were cost synergies in having them all within one group. There is speculation about Dame Marjorie's future. She has been chief executive for 10 years and last month turned 60. "I have been here for a while, it's true, but we have had a lot of work to do to make this the kind of company we wanted to," she said. "We have had to change a lot but it has never been as thrilling an atmosphere as we are now in."
