The Financial Times is making a number of changes to its senior leadership team including appointing a new news editor and FT Weekend editor.
Janine Gibson will edit the Saturday newspaper FT Weekend from 1 March after three years as assistant editor playing a big role in its digital strategy, including overhauling the FT homepage, launching the streamlined FT Edit app, and growing its visual and data journalism.
She will succeed Alec Russell, who has edited FT Weekend for almost seven years but will now become foreign editor, a new role for the newspaper. Russell launched the FT Weekend festivals in London and Washington as well as the FT’s insider guides to cities under his editorship.
The bumper FT Weekend on Saturdays has continued to grow its print circulation in the past few years despite an overall trend of print decline across the industry. Its circulation was 90,047 in January 2020 and rose to 99,960 in October – a rise of 11%.
Inside the newsroom, Matthew Garrahan will leave the post of news editor after four years to become head of digital platforms and strategy, also writing a bi-weekly column.
The news editor job will be taken up by Tom Braithwaite, currently companies editor. World news editor Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, who has previously also held the roles of Paris bureau chief and private equity correspondent in the past ten years, will take up the companies editor role and also become an assistant editor.
The three newsroom changes will take effect from the end of January.
FT editor Roula Khalaf said: “These appointments are motivated by my conviction that change and innovation are crucial to our success. I’m deeply grateful to senior editors who are changing portfolios and look forward to drawing on their energy and expertise in their new roles.”
The FT announced in March this year it had reached one million paying digital subscribers.
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