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Developing a multimedia newsroomLisa MacLeod, Head of Operations: FT.Com

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Looking back over 10 years: the challenges

Decline in advertising + advent of web = dual pressures for newsroomsExtra requirements of video, audio, interactive graphics and visuals, data, onlineonly verticals = more resources to the webTime constraints: continuous deadlines and reorganising newsroomsKey concept: channel neutral / agnosticMonetise content and focus on content salesDiversify away from declining print advertising revenueHave a strategy for technology, and legacy systemsChallenge to cut costs - and divert resources onlineDeal with cultural shifts in newsrooms – particularly impression that web wasinferior to print

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The way it was…

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The business changed …

Built a paywall and pioneering payment model that workedEmployed aggressive pricingTrimmed unprofitable distribution channelsDiversified, and focused on content sales, like subscriptions, licencesTackled legacy systems and integrated technology / editorial needsMade a brave departure from Apple / ITunesDeveloped strategic products: html 5 Web AppBought Assanka, now FT Labs to do cutting edge development workPaid a lot of attention to data analytics

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And the newsroom changed too…

Reduced complexity of print editionsInvested in video, special investigations, interactives and specialistonline teams like Alphaville, Trading Room, and BeyondbricsTook community building seriously: social media and blogsMoved to web-first and multiskilled production operationsChanged rhythms of the newsroom to match readers’ movementsmore closelyContinuous digital training – data journalism, analytics, SEO etc

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The way it is

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Readers change their habits

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The rise and rise of mobile

Threat, or opportunity?

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Paper - to desktop - to mobile

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Mobile: a huge opportunity for publishers?

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Putting customers at the centre

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The Big Themes

Responsive design and separation of form and content

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Responsive design

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The Big Themes

The use of data in journalism, and in the business

Responsive design and separation of form and content

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Data journalism

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Multichannel analytics has helped accelerate the growth of our digital

business – allowing us to iterate quickly and focus on growth

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Data analytics – the DNA of your business

We quickly came to realise that actually,the real power of the subscriptionrelationship … comes from the data

John Ridding, CEO, Financial Times

Mature + successfuldata driven CRM

programme

Optimisationembedded acrossdigital business

Measure cross-platform effectivenessShapes our strategy

Powers on and off-sitemarketing

Provides insight intocustomer content

preferences

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The Big Themes

Addressing the needs of mobile customers : engagement

Responsive design and separation of form and content

The use of data in journalism, and in the business

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The Big Themes

Responsive design and separation of form and content

The use of data in journalism, and in the business

Providing faster, continuous news and commentary

Addressing the needs of mobile customers : engagement

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“Like Twitter, with context”

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Lots of love from the Twitterati….

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The Big Themes

Responsive design and separation of form and content

The use of data in journalism, and in the business

Security

Addressing the needs of mobile customers : engagement

Providing faster news and commentary

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FT blog and official Twitter feeds hacked after phishing attack

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Stating the obvious

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Hacking experience – how it happened

Syrian Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) carried out a very targeted cyberattackagainst the FTSome emails containing a phishing link entered the FT from external emailaccounts, some from FT staffRedirect users to an identical corporate login screen – we use Google MailFilling in login details redirected user to Gmail account, details captured by hackersSecured a corporate email account, globbal address list – expanded phishingexerciseAlert from IT department then compromised – used text of message to invokepasswordsGoogle blacklisted the URL and then phishing stopped but hackers had alreadydone password reset on Wordpress

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A tiny chink in the armour

Large organisations, especially media companies, will always be vulnerable tocyber attack – the attack surface is huge, and the attacker needs only a tinychink in the armour. We reluctantly join an illustrious list of organisations thathave suffered similar attacks in recent weeks – Associated Press, the Onion,Sky News, the BBC, the Guardian, and just a few days after us, the Telegraph.

Andrew Betts, FT Labs

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The steps we took

Fortunately had a hacking procedure in place: foresightWe invoked IP restrictions, limiting access to many systems to thosewithin an FT networkThe compromised Google accounts were all deactivated by GoogleTwitter locked all our Twitter accounts and changed the credentialsWe activated more aggressive measures to alert us to suspiciouslogin attemptsActivated two-step authentication on Google accounts andconsolidated Twitter usage through Social FlowTwo-step authentication on Twitter too

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No hard feelings…

Yes, we did hack the FT today to publish some information that allof the major news organisations have been ignoring… The FT … isthe less bias(ed) of the western media establishments so our attackwas very light … We had no choice but to take matters into our ownhands. We have no further plans to hack the FT and we hope there

are no hard feelings.Our voice is small: we hope you can lend us yours.

Syrian Electronic Army