Either you’re a student of finance or economics or a businessman looking for deeper and useful insights, one question often becomes your major concern?
Which financial newspaper should I subscribe to?
Financial Times acronym FT has unarguably been one of the most credible sources of information for business readers, stock market investors, and students.
However, the subscription fees of the FT have always been on the higher side as compared to its competitors, Wall Street Journal, Economist, etc. Therefore, many people become paranoid if the subscription to FT will be worth the money?
We have come up with a detailed discussion of everything about FT, who should subscribe to it, what to expect, and if the financial publication delivers the acclaimed value against the money charged. Therefore, keep on reading this article to decide whether to subscribe to FT or go with another publication.
What is Financial Times All About?
Initially launched as London Financial Guide in January 1888, FT was renamed as Financial Times in February of the same year. Initially, it was a four-page journal that had the main audience of the financial community in London. The unique feature of FT was the slightly pink paper that distinguished it from its rivals. After 57 years of rivalry with the Financial News, both newspapers were merged in 1945.
FT has positioned itself as an international newspaper despite being home to the city of London. The newspaper initiated its online presence in 1995 through FT.com. The newspaper launched its US edition in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington, and Orlando in 1985. Later on, the subscription services were launched in 2002.
Also, in 2002, the company launched its most successful and largest-circulation fund management title FT Fund Management(FTfm). Currently, the FT is owned by a Japanese-based company Nikkei. The FT has its own mobile internet app, various subscription levels, and a metered paywall allowing users to read a specific number of articles free every month.
There have been a lot of ups and downs in the history of the Financial Times. However, what remained constant was their flair and flavor of accuracy in financial journalism, reporting market data for investors, and bringing up the financial and economic news for premium business readers from all around the world.
Unique Selling Point Of The Financial Times
Since the FT is homed in the UK, you can unmistakably smell the Britain flair in the writings of the newspaper and magazines. The unique selling point of the financial brand is the engagement of the readers.
Unlike Wall Streets Journal, the Financial Times is not targeting the hardware store owner and a senior financial decision-maker alike. The reports have also shown that most of the readers and audience of the Financial Times are senior financial decision-makers in different organizations.
Besides, the publication identifies itself as a global information disseminator. Over 60% of journalists are based in the UK. The remaining 40% of the journalists in the European region, Canada, and the USA are the strength of the FT for gathering news for global audiences.
It is one of the reasons why European audiences rate the Financial Times as the most credible source of financial information over the Wall Street Journal. A poll of EU Brussels decision-makers ranked FT as the top influencer, with 62% voting for the FT and only 38% for WSJ.
WHY the Financial Times is a more premium service for financial readers?
The global perspective of the newspaper on the economic and financial issues provides a high-level grasp of the current happening around the globe. Besides, FT’s ad to content ratio is exceptionally great compared to other competitors like WSJ.
The FT has 22 pages divided into two sections, and WSJ has 46 pages. A reader can consume more focused and concentrated information with less fluff by subscribing to the FT. Whereas you might have to read ‘5 ways to improve your body language’ while scrolling through a WSJ edition.
Different Levels of Subscription
There are different levels of subscriptions offered for different groups of audiences. The most common are the following:
Digital Subscriptions
A digital subscription is the most popular among all types of subscriptions offered by the group. It is further categorized into digital subscriptions and premium digital subscriptions.
With the digital subscription, a reader will get access to all essential news and analysis, commentary, podcast, and video. The subscription also includes myFT, FT app, Life & Arts articles, market insights, data, and portfolio tools. 10 gift articles with the exclusive newsletter for the subscribers are also part of this subscription.
The premium digital subscription, on the other hand, is for the senior decision-makers. Besides the digital subscription, the premium level includes exclusive analysis for a deeper digging of the market, 18 premium newsletters, ePaper, the Lex column, and 20 gift articles every month.
Print Subscriptions
Then come the print subscriptions for the people who like to read the print version of the newspaper. The audience is generally the organizations, senior readers, and financial decision-makers.
The FT delivers the print newspaper to different locations across the world, and you can subscribe to the MON-SAT package or the Weekend Only subscription, depending on your reading needs. The print subscriptions also give you access to the ePaper.
Bundle Subscriptions
The users can bundle up the digital and print subscriptions or weekend and digital subscriptions. This is how bundling subscriptions at the FT works.
Student Subscriptions
Students are also the consumers of the financial information and business news published in the FT. Therefore, the group offers student subscriptions at a lower side of the price to provide their services to the students.
Group Subscriptions
At offices, organizations, and groups of people who consume financial or business information published in the FT, group subscriptions are in the place where multiple users can access the FT from digital mediums or print.
You will get premium digital access plus multiple user access, usage-based pricing and volume discounts, dedicated accounts for different users, and a lot more.
What To Expect From Your Subscription?
We have elaborated on each type of subscription to a deeper level. However, you must know which subscription is for you. Therefore, let’s segregate features of the FT and decide which subscription is for you.
ePaper
If you go for the digital premium subscription or print subscription, you get access to the ePaper. However, there is a separate subscription for ePaper at $20 for three months.
Gift Articles
In the digital and digital premium subscriptions, you get 10 and 20 free gift articles, respectively.
Print Form
For getting the hard form of the FT, you must subscribe to the print subscription of the company and receive your daily or weekend edition.
Market Insights
Market insights are given in all subscriptions. However, the premium digital and enterprise subscriptions offer more indecisive and concrete market insights for decision-makers at different organizational levels.
Lower Price
You can get the standard digital subscription at a 50% lower price for $3.58 per week as a student. It gives you unlimited access to articles, columns, features, mobile apps, personalized email briefing, portfolio tools, and gift articles. However, you have to show proof of your studentship.
MyFT
MyFT is available in the digital subscription of the FT, and it offers you tracking of the topics that you’re most interested in.
Mobile and Tablet Apps
Access to mobile and tablet apps is offered in almost all types of subscriptions of FT.
Who Should Subscribe To Financial Times?
The question is, who should subscribe to Financial Times?
The answer is one word: Anyone.
However, there is an extension to the answer!
For anyone who wants a concrete view on the global and, most specifically, European, American, and Britain business happenings, LSE market insights, and a more concentrated information package, the FT subscription is for you.
As the premium pricing of the FT is a point of concern for everyone, you can decide which subscription to go for based on your usage. If you are not a regular consumer of the information, maybe you can subscribe to the FT weekend. Besides, you can also test if the FT meets your reading needs by subscribing to their trial for $1.
The trial subscription is an offer for 4 weeks for $1. You get unlimited premium digital access to the business news of the FT. 1 month is enough period to access if you should go for a full-time subscription or not.
Final Verdict; Is FT Subscription Worth It?
When the question of ‘is FT subscription worth it?’ is concerned, the answer is YES!
WHY?
The amount of information concentrated in 22 pages is incredible.
We will regard it as a value for money for the following reasons:
- Incredible resource for the senior financial decision-makers and investors
- Unlimited access to digital channels at your convenience
- Gift articles that can be shared with family, friends, and colleagues
- Access to ePaper along with the digital subscription
- The free trial provides enough time to see if the FT content is for you
- Excellent perspective on the economic, financial, and business news from around the globe.