The Financial Times is under new ownership but not afraid to take its new bosses – the Japanese media company Nikkei – to task.
It was in 2014 the newspaper was critical of its new owners’ “previews” of Japanese corporate earnings, which it said were systematic “apparent leaks” from companies to the newspaper. Will there be editorial clashes in the future?
Faced with reporters and on home turf the chairman of Nikkei, Tsuneo Kita, admitted his English was not good enough to read the FT but said its editorial independence will remain.
“I won’t try to change the FT’s management or editorial styles. It will remain unchanged as the Financial Times. I have already said to the paper’s Chief Executive John Ridding that the FT becoming stronger is beneficial to Nikkei.”
Nikkei’s one point two billion euro purchase of the 127 year-old FT stunned the media world. The Japanese paper dominates business coverage in Japan but is a stranger overseas. What influence will it bring to bear on its
