When Tom Gorman and I talked at the SOPA function last week, one topic that we skated past pretty quickly was the way in which online can provide opportunities to launch into markets which may be too challenging for print. I was interested, then to see the interview with FT CEO John Ridding in Condé Nast's Portfolio.com. It's a wide-ranging piece that talks about the FT's apparently maverick strategy and his efforts to ignore Murdoch. Good man...
If memory serves correctly, Ridding was closely involved in the launch of the FT's Hong Kong-based Asia edition. He says that's doing pretty well but focuses on FT.com's contribution to the business in Asia:
"...we think FT.com is crucial for Asia because the nature of the market is there's a large number of medium-sized economies spread over quite a large geography, so the physical cost of distributing newspapers is a challenge. That's where FT.com comes into its own because that is a great way of building our audience and extending our reach. So we're investing significantly in FT.com as a global proposition, but we think it's going to be particularly helpful for our mission in Asia".He also notes the 1 millionth Chinese reader on which we reported in early April.
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