The Financial Times today announces the launch of a new-look, larger format FT Weekend Magazine on 2 October. It will feature a glittering line-up of writers led by FT Weekend editor Caroline Daniel and magazine editor Sue Matthias.
Leading the launch issue will be Simon Schama’s profile of the UK’s first Conservative Prime Minister for 13 years. David Cameron’s conversation with Britain’s best-known historian is the PM’s first magazine interview since taking power and will appear the day before the Tory Party Conference gets underway in Birmingham.
Schama will be sharing interviewing duties on the refreshed FT Weekend Magazine with legendary FT columnist Lucy Kellaway. They will be joined by regular columnists Robert Shrimsley, Simon Kuper and award-winning US managing editor Gillian Tett who will contribute an anthropologist’s view of life in the US.
Caroline Daniel, editor of FT Weekend, said: “We want the FT Weekend to feel like an intelligent treat for our readers – something to look forward to when you wake up on a Saturday morning. The new magazine will have more personality and a wittier tone, including some of the best writers in the world along with new columns from the FT’s best loved columnists. The magazine will have far more of a focus on people, showcasing the most interesting people in the global business, political and arts communities.”
An expanded food and drink section gets a colourful new home in an expanded back section and will feature pieces on wine from Jancis Robinson and food writing from Rowley Leigh and Nicholas Lander.
In a new ‘Pursuits with the FT’ section, FT writers will showcase the people they cover during the week as readers have never seen them before: off duty.
Science, health and psychology columns will come together in a new section entitled ‘Mind’, and new quizzes and crosswords aim to give readers a real intellectual challenge.
The redesign gives the FT Weekend Magazine larger feature pages that will be filled with investigations, reportage and outstanding photo stories.
The new look magazine is the first in a series of forthcoming changes to the FT Weekend and its launch will be supported by a major integrated marketing campaign.
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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 newspaper, printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 376,564 (ABC figures August 2010), while FT.com has over 2.7 million registered users and 149,047 digital subscribers. The FT’s combined print and paid digital circulation is 563,026 (Deloitte assured, July 2010) and it has a combined print and online average daily readership of 1.9 million people worldwide (PwC assured, November 2009).
For further information, please contact:
Tom Glover, Financial Times
+44 20 7775 6840
tom.glover@ft.com
Niki Wheeler, Launch Grou
+44 0207 758 3913/ 07941 847 390
nikiw@launchgroup.co.uk