Our Mission
The one word that captures the essence of the relationship between FT Strategies and the Google News Initiative is ‘sharing’. In many ways, the theme of sharing links us as organisations in tandem, now set to embark on the latest and most exciting phase of our renewed partnership.
Since my appointment as Managing Director of FT Strategies earlier this year, I have seen first-hand just how the core tenets of sharing, collaboration and relationship building have come to define our work, both as a business and with our partners at Google.
Beginning in 2020, our joint mission has been to support the global news ecosystem by delivering consulting programmes for journalists and news publishers. Our efforts so far have helped more than 700 news media publishers, focusing on financial sustainability, audience diversity and audience growth, and the integration of AI in their workflows. It is a source of great pride that FT Strategies and Google will continue on this journey together, renewing our commitment to providing additional support to 1,000 news organisations across the world by 2027.
The continuation of our partnership will enable publishing organisations to continue to work with us, participating in practical initiatives and learning opportunities - designed to achieve digital transformation and develop sustainable business models. We are also expanding the geographical scope of our work, with an increased focus on Central and Latin America alongside our existing work in EMEA and Asia-Pacific.
In many respects, the partnership’s evolution in these exciting ways is - in itself - an exemplar of the complementary nature of our organisations. Working with Google brings scale and incredible level of access to geographies the world over. For our part, FT Strategies provides the learned and lived expertise from the great institution that is the Financial Times. Over 130 years of experience means we know exactly what it takes to navigate change sustainably through uncertain times. As a result, we are uniquely placed to bring together the key players and partners in the news ecosystem. This has optimised our unique delivery model which is capable of cohort-based consulting that amplifies impact across multiple brands all at once.
Our journey at the FT has proved that news media can be a quality growth business. At a time when trusted information has never been more threatened and therefore essential, we are delighted to renew our partnership with Google to share our experience and expertise with other publishers. This collaboration, with a heightened focus on AI and technological adoption, will empower a diverse array of publishers to thrive in the digital age.
CEO, Financial Times
Our Impact
Our work has allowed smaller-scale organisations - often ones imperilled by government pressures or tightening market conditions - to access bespoke consulting services at times when it is most needed for their businesses to remain viable. Indeed, when thinking of the work we have done with publishers in the Global South, I am reminded and heartened by a quote from a programme participant who simply said ‘your work has allowed us to serve the people who read our news in order to survive’.
From our longer programmes - such as Subscriptions Academy and Audience Diversity Academy - to our short-form Design Sprints and Strategic Sustainability Consultations, our ability to reach publishers worldwide would not be possible without the support of Google’s network of regional partner managers. Stationed worldwide, Google’s RPMs bring vital local market expertise and act as a crucial conduit to help us identify exactly where our consulting support is most needed and the areas that local publishers are most primed to capitalise on. Thanks to the partnership, I am delighted that FT Strategies has supported news organisations in over 75 countries so far and am very excited to reach many more in the coming years.
Numbers don’t always tell the full story, but in this case they certainly speak for themselves. The successes of Daily Maverick come to mind. A true trailblazer in the news publishing industry, not only in their native South Africa but worldwide, our collaboration led to Daily Maverick’s membership acquisitions rising to 25% as a result of the work done on the Digital Revenue Launchpad programme. Daily Maverick has gone from strength to strength and we are truly proud of how we have worked together to support them during an extremely challenging time for news publishers in their country.
The impact of our work transcends platforms, and this is no more evident than at the Spanish publication El Confidencial who enjoyed huge successes in engaging with younger audiences through the Audience Diversity Academy programme. During the programme, El Confidencial conducted a number of experiments designed to achieve a higher rate of younger subscribers. One such experiment focused on TikTok and their targeted campaign on the platform led to a 32x increase in El Confidencial’s TikTok following within less than six months.
The programme gave us a framework for thinking about engaging younger audiences without having to fear losing our core subscriber base. FT Strategies and Google enabled us to reach alignment within the company. Before the programme, we did not have the tools or buy-in to embark on this journey. We will continue to use many of the programme learnings to structure our work.
Head of Subscriptions, El Confidencial
Results are already starting to show in our newest offerings: the AI Launchpad portfolio. 24 EMEA publishers have embarked on a course of experimentation with AI tech over the course of a five-month period. These programmes have been the most in-demand series we’ve developed thus far and we were inundated with requests to participate as early as January. This offering will continue to evolve with the renewal of the partnership, further emphasising the importance of responsible and ethical adoption of AI within news organisations. Our first cohort of AI Launchpad participants deployed a series of promising AI use cases. This includes a use case centred around examining large language models that can be trained further to provide better article summaries in the local language for journalists to utilise within a CMS.
The feedback we had was hugely encouraging, with technical teams saying that the programme helped build their understanding of AI as well as how they might be built agnostically in the future in order to welcome rapid development. Editorial and commercial teams also embraced the opportunity to engage with partners and colleagues to increase their knowledge, so as to not fall behind in an area that will impact our industry.
Looking to the future, it is clear that our partnership’s renewal has come at a critical time. In an age of constant challenges and threats to the core of our industry, the work achieved through our partnership with the Google News Initiative is now more vital than ever. Our continued collaboration will allow us to empower news organisations worldwide and help them progress towards digital transformation and technological adoption. I’m looking forward to writing the next chapters of this remarkable story.
About the author
Joanna leads the FT Strategies business with responsibility for the P&L. She is passionate about helping clients transform and grow their businesses from an audience-led perspective.
Joanna started her consulting career at Accenture and ended up leading the customer strategy practice which she led to double-digit growth, working with a range of clients across B2C and B2B companies and sectors spanning media, arts, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods and financial services. Joanna joins FT Strategies from Manifesto Growth Architects where she was one of four partners leading this independent business.
