Focusing on global influentials puts FT in pink again

In fact, the new FT story is very different indeed. The latest annual results for Pearson, released on Monday, show that the paper is now in fine health. Its profits have doubled in a year. Margins have improved. There has been a rise in revenue, including a 40% uplift online.

Newsprint sales are bucking the overall downward trend in the developed world by edging up month on month, despite two price rises. Its online users are increasing by the week.

So the paper that know-nothing commentators and analysts claimed was on the company's sell-off list is riding high. Not that you would know it because the begrudgers see it differently, suggesting that the FT has only recently raised its game due to Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal. Nothing could not be further from the truth.

The paper is performing well, in both the commercial and editorial spheres, because of strategic decisions taken well before Murdoch's eye ever lit upon the Journal.

No wonder the FT's chief executive John Ridding talks of the paper having enjoyed "a strong 2007" and that it's "firing on all cylinders after a series of innovations". He is pointing to a year in which the pink paper - or salmon paper as it's called in the States where pink has unacceptable political connotations - was named as 2007 newspaper of the year in the What The Papers Say awards.

In the latest Superbrands business survey, the FT was ranked at seventh in the top 500 league, signalling its public impact.

What counts, though, is the journalism. Lionel Barber's editorship has had a beneficial effect. It is a must-read for every private-equity and hedge fund operator, if not in its ink-on-paper version then definitely online.

I spent almost a day at the FT just before Christmas and was struck by the smoothness of its editorial operation. Integration between print and digital is not a dream but a reality, with a unified news desk that operates without a hint of demarcation disputes.

Every FT journalist is imbued with an understanding of the requirements to serve both platforms without a concern about what is right or wrong for each of them. Barber explained: "We've been teaching the language of integration here for eight years. We carried out the process that took us to complete integration calmly and slowly."

There has been much innovation too. Alphaville, the blog that has pioneered a daily "Markets Live" session, attracts considerable interest from traders who engage in lively conversation.

There is one caveat. Barber has arguably faced something of a brain drain as senior journalists such as David Wighton, Tracy Corrigan, Charlie Pretzlik and James Harding have left.

Looking forward, the FT has decided to spread its online participatory wings by introducing a social networking element, a executive forum. "Fundamentally," said Ridding, "it's about connecting with our audience."

UNLIKE many papers, though, the FT plans to charge for the privilege of membership. This might sound crazy, but the FT only took a few bricks out of its original online pay wall, allowing greater free access while charging for regular, unlimited use. Yet its subscribers have increased.

Ridding agrees that by serving a wellheeled elite, there is much less risk of the audience deserting. Indeed, Murdoch changed his mind after initially hoping to remove the Journal's pay wall. Business executives will pay for information that could well prove valuable in taking decisions that generate business and therefore in making them more money.

And what of the great Murdoch threat? Thus far, with the Journal playing its cards close to its chest, there is no clear indication of its ambitions. But there is a belief that it has the New York Times in its sights rather than the FT. Anyway, despite the Journal's mammoth print sale, it does not cover business from a global perspective, which is the FT's province.

As Pearson's chief executive, Dame Marjorie Scardino put it: "We are a niche paper. We are more international, and we think a niche strategy is a more resilient strategy, and different from the Journal."

The FT's increasing US circulation seems to bear that out, with many thousands of New York business types reading both titles. The FT has also sought to strengthen its US position with last month's acquisition of Money-Media, an online news and analysis company for investment managers and company directors.

Scardino, Ridding and Barber always stress the importance of their affluent niche audience and, if it's not too immodest to mention it, the Evening Standard can also boast an "affluent and influential" readership.

Why is this so important? Because the papers with the greatest chance of enduring into an otherwise uncertain newsprint future are those bought by the upper echelon of society.