Martin Dickson’s pick of the week

March 17, 2009 1:25 am

The FT’s deputy editor rounds up the best of the FT and ft.com

The big event was our launch of the Future of Capitalism series. It has got off to a cracking start, underlined by strong web traffic.

Martin Wolf‘s introductory analysis piece on day one was a brilliant tour de force and we also had the perfect day one front page story – an exclusive Ed Luce and Chrystia Freeland interview with Larry Summers in which he stirred up a transatlantic hornet’s nest by calling for a greater co-ordinated global stimulus.

The analysis pages throughout the week were of a very high standard and thought-provoking, so a big thanks to Gillian Tett and Krishna Guha, Chrystia Freeland and John Thornhill, Francesco Guerrera and Richard Milne – and to everyone who  contributed ideas/profiles  to the “50 most influential people” page. The expanded  online, interactive version of the 50 influentials, by Steve Bernard and Jeremy Lemer, was a smart piece of work.

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Posted in Editorial update, FT.com |

Martin Dickson’s pick of the week

March 9, 2009 1:15 pm

The FT’s deputy editor Martin Dickson rounds up the best of the FT and ft.com

This update has to start with the reporting highlight of the week – Jamil Anderlini’s brave and brilliant account of China’s ancient petitioning system and how it is not working, despite being an important outlet for protest in a one-party state under growing economic pressure. Jamil’s analysis was the result of months of painstaking interviews with petitioners from the provinces who had tried and failed to get redress. The three-part video and interactive graphic that accompanied the story is powerful and in parts very moving. Production plaudits to Du Juan, Ed Cheng, Richard Edgar and Cleve Jones.

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Posted in Editorial update, From the newsroom |

Lionel Barber’s pick of the week

February 23, 2009 1:34 pm

Introduction: Equity markets slump and the price of gold soars amid growing fears of US bank nationalisation, notably Citigroup and Bank of America; Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan cricket tycoon, is charged with fraud by the SEC; the Department of Justice fines UBS $780m and seeks to force the disclosure of the names of 52,000 clients suspected of tax evasion; UK public borrowing heads toward 10 per cent of national income; and Japan’s pickled finance minister is forced to resign.

And if you failed to pick up or read the Financial Times or ft.com this week, you would have missed the following gems:

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Posted in Editorial update |

Lionel Barber’s pick of the week

February 16, 2009 12:44 pm

Themes of the week: The Geithner plan to save the US banking system receives a raspberry; Rio Tinto agrees to a rescue plan with Chinalco, the Chinese metals giant; HBOS reveals appalling results driven by reckless property lending; Lloyds admits it failed to do due diligence ahead of the purchase; bankers are barbecued in the House of Commons and Capitol Hill; Israel’s elections produce deadlock; and a Dr Strangelove satellite collision takes place in space.

And if you failed to pick up and read the FT or ft.com, you would have missed the following unique items.

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Posted in Editorial update |

New FT blogs, new comment

February 11, 2009 6:09 pm

There have been quite a few changes recently to the FT blogging system, so we’d like to let you know about them.

We’ve upgraded our blogging platform, WordPress, to version 2.6.5, which has some benefits behind the scenes, but also gave us a chance to update the look and feel. We have cleaned up the design, and moved from three columns to two. This allows for a neater layout of content on the right of the page, and modules that can be hidden or expanded, so readers can customise the page view as they like. We will use this area for other new modules and widgets in the future, giving you interesting ways of accessing our content as well as content from around the web.

The comments system has been revamped. Now a single user ID works on the main FT.com site, Alphaville and FT blogs, which makes it easier for you to post comments. It also means that we can view comment profiles across all of our products, so we can identify our more dedicated commenters, as well as moderate our blogs more effectively.

Our Lex vs Martin Wolf debate has taken FT blogs into a new area – externalising part of the FT’s in-house debate. We don’t always agree with each other, and when it involves some of our most interesting commentators, we are happy to share it with you. It shows how our arguments help shape our editorial direction, and that we are happy to agree to disagree.

Posted in Blogs, FT.com |

Lionel Barber’s pick of the week

February 9, 2009 3:01 pm

If you missed this week’s FT or FT.com, you would have missed the following gems:

1. The “shrinking titans” interactive graphic on FT.com, an easy-to-use guide which combines information and wit on the changing fortunes of the world’s top bankers.

2. The succinct Lex note on the flaws in the Obama plan to curb bankers’ pay. One of several sharp Lex notes this week.

3. Aviva, the UK’s biggest insurer, is to cut a promised £1bn (€1.1bn) pay-out for more than 1m policyholders after sharp falls in stock markets. Andrea Felsted broke a big UK corporate scoop.

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Posted in Editorial update |

Martin Dickson’s pick of the week

February 2, 2009 12:19 pm

It has been a week in which our digging deep into running stories – and  displaying  the results big – has paid huge dividends. We have had superb coverage of the fall of John Thain and the Madoff and Satyam scandals.

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Posted in Editorial update |

New mobile site

January 30, 2009 1:21 pm

The FT has upgraded its mobile site, in the new design and with improved functionality. It works on any phone, but is optimised for the iPhone and BlackBerry which together account for over 60 per cent of FT.com mobile traffic.

Go to m.ft.com

Press release here.

And let us know what you think.

Posted in mobile |

Lionel Barber’s pick of the week

January 26, 2009 1:52 pm

Themes of the Week: Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th president of the US; Gordon Brown unveils a second bail-out for Britain’s banks as Royal Bank of Scotland announces blockbuster losses; John Thain is forced to step down at Merrill after a billion dollar bonus row; sterling slumps further; bad-to-shocking economic data spill out of Japan, South Korea, Singapore and even China.  David Pilling’s words: Shame on the decouplers.

And if you missed the Financial Times or FT.com this week, you would have missed the following unique gems:

Continue reading: “Lionel Barber’s pick of the week”

Posted in Editorial update |

What we’re reading

January 20, 2009 9:04 am

Links from FT editors in the last 24 hours

The Renegades at the New York ‘Times’ – The All New Issue — New York Magazine

What are these renegade cybergeeks doing at the New York ‘Times’? Maybe saving it.

Posted in What we're reading |
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