Kicking off our second News in the Digital Age event, John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times Group, gave an exclusive live interview on how the Financial Times navigated its own digital transformation to reach one million paying subscribers a year ahead of schedule.
在我们的“数字时代的新闻”第二次活动中，金融时报集团首席执行官约翰·里丁进行了独家现场采访，讲述了《金融时报》如何提前一年实现其数字转型，达到一百万付费订阅用户的目标。
Interviewing him was Lea Korsgaard, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Denmark’s Zetland. She asked Ridding about the challenges he faced when setting their original North Star goal, and what was next for the FT.
采访他的是 Lea Korsgaard，丹麦 Zetland 的创始人和主编。她问 Ridding 关于他在设定最初的北极星目标时所面临的挑战，以及 FT 接下来的计划。
Ridding recalled how the institution has persevered during ‘bumpy’ times towards its new North Star: achieving a Global Paying Audience of 3 million.
Ridding 回忆了该机构如何在‘坎坷’时期坚持走向其新的北极星目标：实现 300 万全球付费用户。
John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times Group and Lea Korsgaard, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Zetland at News in the Digital Age 2024
约翰·里丁，《金融时报》集团首席执行官，和莉娅·科尔斯高，Zetland 的创始人兼主编，在 2024 年数字时代新闻大会上
He said the key has been simply having the right business model in place, and that this set the FT Group up to tackle the challenges faced by news publishers in the digital age such as evolving consumer behaviours or competition with social media.
他说，关键在于拥有正确的商业模式，这使 FT 集团能够应对数字时代新闻出版商面临的挑战，如不断变化的消费者行为或与社交媒体的竞争。
The FT is in a strong position now, this year surpassing £500m in revenue for the first time, but hasn’t always been out so far in front. Many of the bumps in the road that happened during Ridding’s tenure happened early on, not least the fact that the FT itself was suffering declines in revenue. As Ridding observed “it’s not a good look if you’re the FT writing about money to be losing money yourselves.”
《金融时报》现在处于一个强有力的位置，今年首次突破 5 亿英镑的收入，但并非一直遥遥领先。里丁任期内遇到的许多挫折大多发生在早期，尤其是《金融时报》本身也面临着收入下降的问题。正如里丁所观察到的，“如果你是《金融时报》，写关于金钱的文章，自己却在亏钱，这看起来不太好。”
So came the decision to start charging for FT content, a decision that caused as much consternation within the organisation as it would amongst readers. Stakeholders were not only disappointed but felt angry; Ridding himself bore the brunt of discontent from unhappy staffers. However, this did not affect Ridding’s clarity in his decision-making. The objective was to achieve a direct relationship with all of the FT’s institutional customers by emphasising the value of quality journalism.
因此，做出了对《金融时报》内容收费的决定，这一决定在组织内部和读者中都引起了不小的困扰。利益相关者不仅感到失望，而且感到愤怒；里丁本人承受了来自不满员工的大部分不满。然而，这并没有影响里丁在决策上的清晰度。目标是通过强调高质量新闻的价值，与《金融时报》的所有机构客户建立直接关系。
“If you don’t get the business model right, you’re not going to be able to deal with any of the other challenges.”
如果你的商业模式不正确，你就无法应对其他任何挑战。
As Ridding surmised, this led to “two years of pain” in which a ‘significant’ amount of high-margin revenue was sacrificed. However, the long-term opportunity at stake was seen as worth striving for, so the FT pushed through.
正如 Ridding 所料，这导致了“两年的痛苦”，期间牺牲了“大量”高利润率的收入。然而，考虑到长期机会的重要性，FT 认为这是值得争取的，因此坚持了下来。
A crucial part of messaging was Ridding’s reinforcement of the axiom that premium content is paid for because it has inherent value. In speaking to FT journalists, Ridding affirmed that the choice to increase the price of the newspaper reflected the organisation’s central belief that the journalism is “worth a lot more” than the £1 price it had been for five years prior.
消息传递的关键部分是 Ridding 强化了这样一个公理：优质内容因其固有价值而获得付费。在与《金融时报》记者交谈时，Ridding 确认，提高报纸价格的决定反映了该组织的核心信念，即新闻报道的“价值远超”过去五年一直保持的 1 英镑价格。
John Ridding, CEO of the Financial Times Group and Lea Korsgaard, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Zetland at News in the Digital Age 2024
约翰·里丁，《金融时报》集团首席执行官，和莉娅·科尔斯高，Zetland 的创始人兼主编，在 2024 年数字时代新闻大会上
Korsgaard asked Ridding about Nikkei’s role as owners of the FT Group since 2015. Ridding remarked that this has been a happy relationship because “they themselves understand news. Because they are of the industry, they get it.”
科斯加德问里丁自 2015 年日经成为《金融时报》集团的主人以来的角色。里丁表示，这是一种愉快的关系，因为“他们自己理解新闻。因为他们是业内的人，所以他们懂。”
Crucially, Ridding made clear that the ethics and values of the FT’s audience were understood by Nikkei and that this understanding allowed both organisations to succeed. As Ridding mentioned when asked about the companies’ working relationship, “the key is always going to be about understanding the interests of our readers, not a mogul.”
crucially, Ridding 强调 Nikkei 理解了 FT 受众的伦理和价值观，这种理解使两个组织都能取得成功。正如 Ridding 在被问及两家公司的合作关系时所说，“关键始终在于理解我们读者的兴趣，而不是某个大亨。”
“As an organisation, we must retain a sense of purpose and remember what our mission is: providing reliable, trustworthy journalism. If any part of the ownership structure fails to see that, then we will all fail.”
“作为一家组织，我们必须保持目标感，记住我们的使命：提供可靠、值得信赖的新闻报道。如果所有权结构的任何部分未能认识到这一点，那么我们所有人都将失败。”
This is manifested in the FT’s ability to move fast, something enabled by having clear organisational alignment and establishing a ‘circle of trust’ composed of people who understand how to deal with challenges through lived experience.
这体现在《金融时报》能够快速行动，这得益于组织内部有明确的一致性，并建立了一个由具有应对挑战实际经验的人组成的“信任圈”。
Ridding said that “as an organisation, we must retain a sense of purpose and remember what our mission is: providing reliable, trustworthy journalism. If any part of the ownership structure fails to see that, then we will all fail.”
Ridding 说：“作为一个组织，我们必须保持目标感，记住我们的使命：提供可靠、值得信赖的新闻。如果所有权结构的任何部分未能认识到这一点，那么我们所有人都将失败。”
Korsgaard asked Ridding to explain where he sees the opportunities to embrace AI within the FT newsroom. Ridding mentioned that the FT is approaching AI experimentation “thoughtfully and carefully” while trying to understand and embrace the technology while it evolves.
科斯戈德要求里丁解释他在《金融时报》新闻编辑室中看到的利用人工智能的机会。里丁提到，《金融时报》正在“深思熟虑且谨慎”地进行人工智能实验，同时试图理解并拥抱这项技术，随着其不断发展。
The news media industry, Ridding said, is “still in the foothills of what is clearly going to be possibly the biggest ever series of tectonic disruption driven by AI” and faces a series of prevalent risks, not least disintermediation.
新闻媒体行业，Ridding 说，仍处于“显然是由 AI 驱动的可能是有史以来最大的一系列地壳变动的山脚下”，并面临着一系列普遍的风险，其中最突出的是中介化消失。
Ultimately, however, Ridding remained optimistic and focused on the opportunities that exist for today’s news media companies rather than the pitfalls. He said “the doom loop is probably overstated” and an opportunity has emerged for news media to optimise their business models through better use of AI. Applying predictive analytics to address consumer acquisition, user retention, and churn make up the “hard science that’s part of a successful dynamic subscription model” as we have at the Financial Times.
然而，Ridding 仍然保持乐观，并专注于当今新闻媒体公司存在的机遇而非陷阱。他说“末日循环可能被夸大了”，新闻媒体通过更好地利用人工智能优化其商业模式的机会已经出现。将预测分析应用于消费者获取、用户保留和流失构成了“成功的动态订阅模式中的硬科学”，正如我们在《金融时报》所做的那样。
At FT Strategies, we work with news and media organisations globally, helping them address strategic challenges, drive sustainable growth and innovate using AI, technology and data. If you would like to chat about any of these topics with our expert consultants, please get in touch.
在 FT Strategies，我们与全球的新闻和媒体组织合作，帮助他们应对战略挑战，推动可持续增长，并利用 AI、技术和数据进行创新。如果您想与我们的专家顾问讨论这些话题中的任何一个，请联系我们。
