New York: The Financial Times today announces the appointment of Richard McGregor as Washington bureau chief, leading the FT’s coverage of American politics and managing its DC-based team of reporters.  McGregor succeeds Edward Luce, who is taking leave to write a book.

McGregor, currently deputy news editor for the FT based in London, will take up his new role with immediate effect. He will move to Washington full-time from 3rd January 2011.

Gillian Tett, US managing editor, commented: “The financial crisis and economic turmoil have emphasized and accelerated the need to think global in terms of business, politics and economics. Richard’s foreign policy expertise and international experience will add to our award-winning coverage of the intersection of politics, business and finance and their sweeping effects. Ed’s contributions to the FT’s Washington coverage cannot be overestimated. During his tenure, the Financial Times earned a coveted seat in the White House press briefing room and in July Ed was honored with a Sidney Award for his feature on the ‘The Crisis of Middle-Class America.’ The FT’s DC team is as strong as it has ever been and in a great position from which to build.”

McGregor has previously served as Beijing bureau chief and Shanghai correspondent for the Financial Times. Prior to that, he was chief political correspondent, Japan correspondent and China correspondent for The Australian.  He has also worked for the International Herald Tribune, the BBC and the Far Eastern Economic Review and in various journalistic roles in Taiwan, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.

McGregor has won various awards throughout his nearly two decades of reporting from north Asia, including a 2010 Society of Publishers in Asia Editorial Excellence Award (Excellence in Reporting Breaking News category) for his coverage on the Xinjiang Riots, and 2008 SOPA Awards for Editorial Intelligence (Excellence in Opinion Writing and Excellence in Feature Writing categories). He is author of The Party; The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers (2010).

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For further information please contact:

Darcy Keller
Head of Communications, The Americas
T: +1 212-641-6614
E: darcy.keller@ft.com

Andrew Green
Communications Coordinator, The Americas
T: +1 212-641-6357
E: andrew.green@ft.com

About the Financial Times

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing essential news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community, the FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 579,249 (Deloitte assured, September 2010) and a combined print and online average daily readership of 1.9 million people worldwide (PwC assured, May 2010). FT.com has three million registered users and the FT has 189,022 paying digital subscribers. The newspaper, printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 401,898 (ABC figures October 2010).

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