On the principle that one is always most interested in news that is close to home, I have been watching with fascination the appointments of Robert Thomson, editor of The Times, as publisher of the Wall Street Journal and James Harding, The Times’ business editor, as his successor.

As noted by Roy Greenslade, this means that former Financial Times journalists are now in editorial charge of the Journal, The Times and the Telegraph (Will Lewis is editor-in-chief). The FT suddenly appears to have become a management school for editors.

It might be coincidence. Each of the three is very talented, as I can attest from having worked with them, and the FT may just be good at recruiting smart people. But I wonder if there is more to it (even allowing for my bias on the subject).

I can think of three explanations:

One is that the FT has become, like General Electric, a training ground for executives who then move on to top jobs at other companies. Of course, General Electric is a big enterprise and the FT is a small one. But the FT has an broad reach for a newspaper: it covers subjects from politics to business and finance, has editorial bureaus around the world, and rotates its journalists among specialisms.

Thus, Mr Harding, in addition to working as media editor and Washington bureau chief for the FT, also opened its Shanghai bureau. Mr Thomson worked in China, Japan and the US for the paper.

That contrasts with many newspapers, which have pulled back from foreign coverage as their circulations and profits fall. It means FT journalists are more likely than those from other papers to have worked in a variety of countries and to have covered a wide range of topics. This is similar to the GE effect - since it has a wide range of operations, its executives get a broad training.

A second explanation is less FT-specific. It is that business journalists are increasingly being appointed to run newspapers. Thus, the former editor of the Sunday Telegraph was Patience Wheatcroft, a former business editor of The Times. Logically, that favours papers such as the FT and the Journal. Waltroon, who comments on Roy Greenslade’s post above, raises this point.

In the old days of Fleet Street, editors tended to come from general news backgrounds or editorial pages and City pages were seen as backwaters. But that has changed as business stories have become more important and the industry has entered a period of upheaval. If you are a newspaper owner looking for a journalist familiar with changes in the media and the world more generally , it is logical to seek out a business specialist.

My third explanation is human: the power of the social networks. Working for the FT or Journal, or being a business reporter for another publication, is a natural way to meet business executives. Mr Harding met James Murdoch when he worked in China and Rupert Murdoch when he was the FT’s media editor. It helps to encounter people who are in a position one day to give you a job.

December 10th, 2007 in Media | Permalink