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FT journalists to get 3% pay rise and £1,000 bonus

By Oliver Luft

Journalists at the Financial Times will receive a three per cent pay increase and a performance-related bonus of around £1,000 next year.

An internal memo sent to editorial staff today by managing editor Lisa MacLeod said the pay increase and bonus were the result the strength of the financial performance of the business and the ‘excellent contribution of the editorial department”.

FT Group revealed in July that it more than doubled its adjusted operating profit in first half of this year to £30m with revenue rising nine per cent to £192m as digital subscriptions increased rapidly.

Parent group Pearson then completed the sale of its 61 per cent stake in Interactive Data – part of FT Group – to Silver Law and Warburg Pincus for £1.28bn.

The three per cent increase is above the 2.5 per cent pay rise being offered generally across Pearson and comes after an across-the-board two per cent increase in January last year. All journalists at the FT now earn a basic £40,000 minimum salary.

According to the memo, the increase will apply to all, even those 203 staff who received pay increases over the course of last year. The company bonus is expected to be paid in March.

‘This bonus was negotiated by the NUJ in 2008, but has not paid out to date as it is predicated on clean profit above targets,’the memo said.

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‘However, senior management has agreed that the bonus will be paid this year for the first time and it reflects the strong performance of the business and the excellent contribution of the editorial department.

‘We will not have the final figure until the accounts are closed at year-end, but we expect that each individual will receive in excess of £1,000.

“This bonus is in recognition of the exceptional effort put in by you all over the past year. While it is not consolidated, it nevertheless fulfils the backward-looking element of the pay round.”

As an additional perk, a second memo revealed the FT would subsidise the purchase of a personal iPad or other tablet device to the tune of £300.

‘Given their importance and the wave of innovation that we are seeing in applications and services, we want to encourage all our staff to be expert and experienced in using them,’the second memo said.

‘We need to fully understand their potential and share the user experience to better understand our customers and the developments and innovations taking place in the market.

‘Tablet devices will also facilitate working while travelling, which is an increasing feature of our global organisation.”

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