The FT's chief executive on AI, "loyalist" readers, and its U.S. expansion

And don‘t forget:

Sir Humphrey : The only way to understand the Press is to remember that they pander to their readers' prejudices.

Jim Hacker : Don't tell me about the Press. I know exactly who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country; The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Financial Times is read by people who own the country; The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey : Oh, and Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Bernard Woolley : Sun readers don't care who runs the country as long as she's got big tits.

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Late last year, I signed up for a daily delivery of a physical copy of The Financial Times. I rarely read news websites, other than HN and Reddit. Why? Because I wanted to be informed about world events but dislike the always-on nature of online news, and because I have a certain romantic ideal of reading the morning newspaper with a cup of coffee. Unfortunately it doesn't arrive in the morning and usually comes around noon.

How has it been? Both good and bad. I do like having a physical paper put in the mailbox, as it's fun to look forward to a "delivery" every day that is more real than just looking at my phone.

On the other hand, I find the FT to be worth reading only about every other issue, largely because there simply isn't enough news to report in 24 hours. The opinion and editorial sections make up a decent portion of the paper and largely aren't worth reading. But, every other issue or so, there are a few excellent articles absolutely worth the price of admission. And even then, the quality of the "boring" articles is leaps and bounds above what I used to read in the NYT or the Guardian.

I'm not sure if I'll be renewing it later this year, as it does feel like I'm wasting a lot of paper – but only on the days when I don't enjoy the articles. I wish they had a twice weekly edition, which would be the perfect interval IMO.

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Since then, my opinion has only been solidified. I find their opinion takes to be pretty boilerplate predictable and not very thoughtful. I guess I'd only recommend it if you want a robust overview of daily business news. Otherwise, their general news articles are nothing special. But, they are still much less biased than the NYT, which is what I'm most familiar with.