After studying subscriber habits, the self-described “digital first” Financial Times launched a redesign of its newspaper last month to complement its online and mobile news products. Retaining the traditional salmon color and broadsheet format, FT refreshed the look of its front page, adding color graphics and a new typeface. With a primary focus on digital news, the newspaper’s redesign seems unnecessary and counterintuitive, but it represents the FT’s philosophy quite well, says Gillian Tett, U.S. managing editor of FT.In an interview with Justin Ellis at NiemanLab, Tett says the 24-hour international news operation is tailoring its content to address how its readers – both free, registered users and paying subscribers –are consuming news. For example, FT learned its readers consume news on different devices at different times of the day. For breaking news, readers want bite-size highlights early in the day. To address those needs, FT offers a robust website, a constantly-evolving, multimedia mix of breaking news, story updates, blogs, editorial and market data. Paying subscribers can also access brief, chunky, aggregated news on fastFT, FT’s mobile app, in an easy-to-read format designed for users on the go.Readers want long-form or “slower” news later in the day in print form, often reading more in-depth stories when they get home from work. Subscribers can get that from FT’s newly designed print edition which represents a snapshot in time of the most important news first published online. The print content is derived from the digital product rather than the other way around, says FT editor Lionel Barber in a radio interview with BBC News. The print product provides in-depth news but it also provides context in a way that readers want.Tett explains, “…what this refresh really does is signal very clearly – and not just signal but actually underline and enable us – to show that we care about print a lot too. And it’s not necessarily an either/or. Obviously we’re facing a marketplace where there is an evolution from print to digital for many of our readers, but not all of our readers. We have a lot of really valued readers who really like reading us in print…”