The Financial Times today announced the appointment of John Authers as its global editor of Lex, the renowned business and financial column. Authers will take up his new role on 1st April 2010 and lead the team from New York until he relocates to London from 1st September 2010.

Authers is currently the FT’s investment editor and principal commentator on markets and investments. He writes the daily ‘Short View’ column with a related daily video on FT.com, the ‘Long View’ column, which appears every Saturday and which he will continue to write, and numerous columns for the FT’s special supplements.

Financial Times editor Lionel Barber commented: “John has developed Short View into one of the FT’s most popular columns. He brings a wealth of experience to Lex and will be instrumental in the next phase of its development.”

Lex, the flagship daily opinion column that fills the back page of the FT and which is available to premium subscribers online, first appeared in 1945. The column has proven to be the incisive and authoritative voice on topics ranging from individual companies to global economics. Truly international in its scope, Lex has columnists stationed in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Authers will join the Lex column’s distinguished editor alumni, which includes former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, former Barclays Bank CEO Martin Taylor and the current director general of the Confederation of British Industry Richard Lambert.

Authers joined the Financial Times in 1990 and during his career has served as its US markets editor, Mexico City bureau chief, US banking correspondent, personal finance correspondent, education and local government correspondent and ‘On Wall Street’ columnist.

Authers won awards from The Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ Best in Business competition in 2008 and 2010 for his video reports on FT.com, and he was last year named the UK’s investment journalist of the year for national newspapers in the State Street Institutional Press Awards. In 1987 he also captained the highest-scoring team in the history of the British TV quiz show University Challenge.

Authers is the author of the forthcoming The Fearful Rise of Markets – Global Bubbles, Synchonized Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them, to be published by the FT Press in May 2010.

James Mackintosh, previously comment editor and hedge funds correspondent, will become the FT’s investment editor and ‘Short View’ columnist, based in London.

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The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed at 25 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 390,203 (ABC figures February 2010) and a readership of 1.3 million people worldwide. FT.com is the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 11.4 million unique users, generating 83.2 million page views (ABCe figures, March 2009) and now has over 1.8 million registered users.

Tom Glover, Acting Global Director of Communications, +44 (0)20 7775 6840 or tom.glover@ft.com

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