As long as good content is made, the market will pay for it?

Back to the gold standard in journalism

Lionel Barber is the former editor-in-chief of the British business and financial newspaper " Financial Times, FT" . At the end of last year, he published a diary on the editor's desk: The Powerful and the Damned: Private Diaries in Turbulent Times (it's a diary, but it's actually a diary). He reconstructed it through calendars and notes).

When he took office in 2005, FT, like many newspapers, faced problems such as shrinking advertising revenue and declining profits, but the editor-in-chief could not provide a clear policy response. At the first editor-in-chief, Barber announced to all editors: From now on, FT's focus will be on high-quality reporting with a global perspective. He required that all FT news have two independent sources: I wish we could get the headlines first, but getting it right is more important than being first . He reiterated the words of Sir Gordon Newton (1950-1972), the greatest editor of FT in history: The readers that FT wants to attract are decision makers in the business, financial and public spheres . Then add a new catchphrase of your own: " it's time to return to the gold standard"

Under him, FT invested more resources in investigative reports, the most important of which were a series of reports on the operations and questionable financial position of the German company Wirecard, whose shares were included in the DAX index by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (equivalent to The Dow Jones Index and FTSE 100 in Germany) is one of the most listed companies in Germany by market value. The FT report made Wirecard fake accounts and falsely report profits. The company finally went bankrupt. The Enron case in Germany.

Shortly after his ascension, Lionel Barber began to promote a paid subscription system for online content, which was considered a pioneer in the newspaper industry at the time; it also published content in different digital formats, including podcasts (the English version of FT adopted a comprehensive paywall system very early, and all content was Locked, no part of it free or free to read, I would listen to free podcasts if I wanted to touch FT content at the time). By the time he steps down in early 2020, FT has nearly one million digital subscribers, and more than 100,000 paper subscribers. He has also successfully transformed FT from a home-based newspaper reporting British business news to a global financial media outlet. According to the Global Capital Markets Survey cited by Wikipedia , FT is 36 percent effective at reaching its target audience (financial institution decision makers), which is 11 percent higher than its top competitor, the Wall Street Journal.

I flipped through a few book reviews to see if Lionel Barber's diary offered more experiences and stories about the transformation of journalism. The Wall Street Journal said that in order to get first-hand information, he went all the way and picked a favourable target. Open in front of the public, but not reported, is actually the secret that everyone knows: capitalism and political forces in power (the implication also includes their vassals, including financial reporters who are close to the system). The world is unsustainable and incompatible with liberal democracy.

What both reviews agree on: Lionel Barber is a megalomaniac, a narcissist. I think, to be able to manage the huge network of contacts required for this job, to be able to face-to-face with the British Prime Minister, the President of the United States, leaders from Europe, Asia, Russia and other countries, and members of the royal family from the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia. A little ego blessing might also help.

Lionel Barber may be a narcissist, but he also admits to a mistake he made on the editorial desk: completely misjudging the Brexit referendum situation and missing the most important story, not the mainstream media that cares about pro-Brexiters The huge economic cost of the coverage is civil dissatisfaction with long-term economic inequality, as well as identity politics and ethnic rivalry. He despised Trump (Trump) and did not expect him to take office.

first female editor-in-chief

The average reader of FT is "men over the age of 50", and the vast majority of editors and reporters are also men. In such an environment, FT's corporate culture is evident. Barber wrote in his diary: "One day, I' ll deal with the alpha male problem, but not today."

What Barber couldn't handle was left to his successor, Roula Khalaf, the first female editor-in-chief in FT history.

Roula Khalaf was born in Lebanon. Her father was the Lebanese economy minister in the 1970s. During the Israel-Lebanon war in 1982, their family moved to an apartment two minutes' walk from the famous Commodore Hotel. She saw many foreign correspondents plugging in telegrams in the hotel lobby. The machine sent news of the war in Lebanon back to editors in the country. Later, she went to the United States to study journalism and interviewed Jordon Belfort, whose story was made into a film by Martin Scorsese. After she joined FT, she worked as a foreign correspondent and for the past four years has Deputy Editor-in-Chief of FT.

When a reporter asked her what she thought about FT's "alpha male" question, Roula Khalaf replied: I don't think it's an alpha male problem, it's just too many men. For a long time, I was in the whole room and conference room only female. To break this habit, it will take years of internal revolution.

The interview also mentioned that about half of the mainstream British news media are now female editors, including The Economist, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times.

After taking over as FT's editor-in-chief, Roula Khalaf continued to adhere to the principle of solid reporting. The reporter asked her what her goal was for FT's future subscriptions. She replied: We don't seek rapid growth, we just need to make a big discount. It's easy to have millions of subscribers. The goal is to make subscribers willing to continue to subscribe after three months through high-quality coverage (the current monthly fee for the FT trial period is $1, which is limited to one month, and the normal price is very unaffordable. $68).

Although the people who publicize their great achievements and erect monuments for themselves cannot fully believe what they say (from the book reviews, Barber's diary seems to be more gossip, peeping, and entertaining than empirical reference); at the same time, in the past few years, The world situation has also brought subscriber growth to many mainstream English-language news media (Trump came to power, the sense of division caused by Covid19, the sense of chaos, crisis, and panic). Even with these provisos, seeing Lionel Barber and Roula Khalaf's persistence and confidence in "making good content", on the one hand, I feel inspired, but at the same time, I am also very emotional——

I believe that many Chinese news/media practitioners will tell me: If you make good reports/content, the market will pay for it, and we have already done this . Then everyone can go on and tell me a bunch of blood and tears in hell.

Whether because of political factors, market tastes, or user habits, the prospects of many Chinese-language news media and text platforms are worrying. There may be a few outstanding people who continue to stand up, but as a reader or user, you have no way of knowing how they are supported by the team's burning ointment, or whether they are already burning the last pot of investors' gold——

When can we confidently say: I just want to make good content, and my market and users will pay for it? Or, confidently and proudly declare: Pursue excellence and success will follow?

(Note: The Financial Times in this article is the English version of FT. Although the FT Chinese website is a subsidiary of FT, some content will be translated from English and reprinted to the Chinese website. However, the editorial operation team is different. User-written. Subscriptions are also completely separate.)