This week the Broadgate Mainland offices were graced with the esteemed presence of Matthew Vincent, Editor of FT money, when he came in to give a talk about his paper, what he likes to report and also what his readers think of his section.
One of the interesting things Matthew revealed was the delight he takes in his team all being, as he described, “a little bit niche and a lot of bit nerdy”. Certainly, FT Money provides some of the most in depth personal finance coverage of any national newspaper and they aren’t afraid to write about alternative assets and non-mainstream investment managers, but it is amusing to think of Matthew and his team as nerds.
Like many of his team, Matthew started his investment reporting at a specialist personal finance magazine later joining Investor’s Chronicle, where he became Editor, a post he occupied for five years before his move to the FT in 2007. I got to know Matthew when he was at Investor’s Chronicle and was personally very pleased when he went to the FT since it was a good move for him, as well as the FT since it had appointed a journalist that really understands investments and investing.
So, nerdy really is good and explains why Matthew and his team are straightforward to deal with. One of things that I have learned over the years is that for the FT to consider a story you need to be confident enough to give them the numbers, all of the numbers and wait. Sometimes this can take time, but if you want something done it has to be done properly.
On the flip side, Matthew revealed that FT Money’s copy deadline is seven o’clock on Friday evening, so unlike some competing papers that close on a Thursday, the FT can still report news. It was interesting to see how the UBS story panned out in the weekend personal finance pages with some not covering it at all, despite ETFs already looming very large on the FSA’s mis-selling agenda.
But with stories like the UBS loss, the real medium newspapers care about is the internet. Today’s journalists have two sets of deadlines; a fixed one for their printed paper and a continual 24 hour deadline for news that can go online. The FT is no different and whilst Lucy Warcwick-Ching oversees online content, all the of FT Money team are under pressure to put breaking stories online as quickly as possible.
So, busy, but approachable if it’s the right story. Not so approachable if it’s not. Matthew (and likely most journalists at nationals) receives 170 emails a day of which perhaps 50 are relevant, 70 he can ignore and a further 50 are useless. Oddly, it appears many PR firms still send the FT stories about mobile phone rates, pet insurance and other money savings tips. Considering the content of FT Money and the net worth of its readers, I was surprised Matthew was so sanguine about people wasting his time.
He said he didn’t like it, but I doubt it makes him cross. A nerd with good karma.
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