For avid readers of the Financial Times, like us, this week’s essential morning briefing brought with it a noticeable new look.
 
It’s cleaner and sharper format was evident from the off, with new font and layout making the broadsheet easier to read and the news easier to digest – perfect for the busy PR looking to get their financial news fix.
 
For those struggling to see further changes in the newspaper, the FT offered a handy pull out for readers to explore this new, ‘better newspaper for the modern age’.
 
Readers can expect to see infographics to allow complex information to be understood quickly and highlighting of trends that are set to matter.  Signposts guide you around the paper and the FT briefing will provide news at a glance and flag articles you can find in the FT that day – all a reflection on the way we consume the news nowadays.
 
The ‘sharper, smarter FT’ also reminds us in these supplement pages that its editorial values, however, remain unchanged. They profess ‘a liberal international outlook, a lack of party affiliation and an ironclad commitment to authoritative news and commentary’.
 
Conveniently, for us PR professionals, the FT also shared with us the five themes they are watching in 2014, a run down of the weekly editorial highlights and also an introduction to its journalists.
 
Its five themes of interest cover…

• Disruption – how technology is transforming the way we work and reshaping the way we live
• Economic recovery – reporting on the world beyond the financial crisis, looking at the economy’s tepid growth and the threat of deflation
• China shakes the world – tracking the superpower-in-waiting at home and abroad, as it closes in on the US as the world’s largest economy
• Energy and the shale gas revolution – looking at the economic and geopolitical consequences of shale gas discovery across the world
• Inclusive capitalism: the next big thing? – exploring whether inclusive capitalism promoting equality, fairness and better corporate governance can really work

 
Some of those weekly editorial highlights include…
Monday:
FTfm – the voice of the global fund management industry
Sports column – features and sports stats
 
Tuesday – Friday:
Markets Insight – comment on financial markets
Smart Money – on investment themes, from hedge funds to psychology of fund managers
Short View – daily thinking on macro-investments
Wednesday:
Inside Asia – Looking at subjects from corporate governance to pay trends in this part of the world
 
Thursday:
Fortnightly column on the UK economy
Weekly Notebook – a satirical look at the week’s news
Inside Europe – explains the context and controversy behind the biggest stories
 
Friday:
Inside Tech: navigate the fast-changing world of technology and media
 
Weekend:
FT Weekend – brings arts and culture to life, with wine suggestions, book reviews and travel and style features
 
 
And finally, what every reader of the FT needs – given they haven’t changed from broadsheet format – a step by step visual guide on how to fold the FT in order to read the newspaper with ease.