To celebrate 20 years online, the Financial Times is making its website FT.com free for 24 hours, starting at 12:01 a.m. BST on Wednesday, September 9, reports Adweek.
A visit to the site’s home page shows the news is true. Through a pop-up ad at the bottom of the screen, FT.com announces the site is free for the day, inviting readers to get a taste for the media outlet’s premium content.Clicking on the tour button will produce a welcome message and tips to get you started on the site. Scrolling through the tips, visitors will learn about the site’s features including videos, iOS and Android apps, market news, special reports, and more.”Read beyond the expected,” the site says. “Uncover the new and noteworthy in culture, style and travel.”According to Adweek, the purpose of the free day was to introduce non-subscribers to FT.com, hoping they’ll be impressed with what they see enough to become subscribers.”As FT.com continues to set the global benchmark for international business, finance, economic and political news and analysis, it’s important that we promote the value of the product in the right way to the right audience,” said Jon Slade, managing director for B2C operations at the FT, in a statement. “We want to create an opportunity for as large an audience as possible to sample and engage with our world-class journalism.Focusing on all lines of business, the Financial Times has experienced success since Slade was promoted to his new position in November 2014.In an interview with MediaWeek last fall, Slade said, “2015 has the potential to be an enormous year for FT.com. We are really focusing hard to think as an entire business rather than individual silos and departments. That’s a piece of work that started a number of years ago, but I really think we have the sensation now that it is moving towards a real drive and focus in the organization.”The FT announcement says that today’s free day is part of a three-stage campaign focused on reach, reader engagement, and digital subscriptions. Digital subscriptions and trials have been a big focus for FT this year, yielding a 9% global increase in print and online circulation this year. Digital subscriptions alone have increased 14% year over year, and now represent 70% of FT’s total paying audience.Insider Take:FT has been making a lot of changes this year, experimenting with digital trials, partnering with the New York Times on provide unlimited digital access to guests at participating hotels, and now offering 24 hours of free access to celebrate its 20 years online. In addition, of course, is Pearson’s sale of its shares of the FT Group to Nikkei – all big – and positive – news for the Financial Times.Other subscription companies can learn from Financial Times’ success, looking at the entire operation but also focusing on specific changes like experimenting with new ways to reach readers and potential subscribers. It is trying new things, tweaking its model, and testing. By continuing to experiment and test different products, FT gathers tons of prospective subscriber data and information about reader behavior with a very low risk.So if you’ve been dying to explore the Financial Times, but weren’t willing to peek behind the paywall, today’s your chance!~ Dana E. Neuts, Subscription Insider
