Last night the Financial Times scooped the prestigious ‘Media Owner of the Year’ award at the Festival of Media Awards in Valencia.

The Financial Times was recognised by a panel of international judges as being “the global media owner to turn to in tough times”, fighting off stiff competition from rivals. The panel also commended the organization on its marketing initiatives, including the Global Downturn campaign, which featured bare poster sites with the text “Global Downturn. What’s the first mistake businesses make?”

Financial Times’ Global Commercial Director Ben Hughes said: “The FT has established itself as a trusted brand and partner in a particularly tough economic environment. We have been able to provide our advertisers with access to an elusive, global audience, which includes some of the world’s most powerful decision makers. Our teams have consistently delivered award-winning international advertising solutions.”

The Financial Times was the only international business publication to show audience growth on every major readership survey released in 2009. Highlights included gaining 50,000 readers every year in the UK for its weekday edition (National Readership Survey, February 2010). It was also identified as the most important business read in Europe according to the 2009 Business Elite survey, and topped The Global Capital Markets Survey in 2009.

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For further information, please contact:

Kristina Eriksson, Financial Times, +44 20 7873 4961 or kristina.eriksson@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 newspaper, printed at 23 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 401,286 (ABC figures March 2010), while FT.com has over 2 million registered users and 126,281 digital subscribers. The FT has a combined print and online average daily readership of 1.9 million people worldwide (PwC audited figures, April 2010).

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