When “The Financial Times” premiered as a morning daily in London back in 1888, few anticipated that it would live this long and become the world’s number one source for business news. The newspaper today is probably rivaled only by the New York-based Wall Street Journal, and is widely respected in Syria and the Arab world as an independent publication that takes pride in its professionalism. The newspaper also publishes its famous financial market index, a model which our sister magazine Aliqtisadi is now following for the Damascus Securities Exchange (DSE), which returned to the Syrian market after a 50-year absence. Forward Magazine spoke to one of the major players behind the current success of “The Financial Times,” its chairperson Sir David Bell.

Let us start off with the world financial crisis. Much has been debated over why it happened, and how it will evolve. With an education in economics, and as chairperson of The Financial Times, can you tell us how it is expected to evolve? Has it reached its peek, or is there more to come?
I think there have been three crises; the first was the financial one. This is what affected some of the world’s banks very badly and might have led to a collapse of the world financial system. That crisis has been averted although there are big issues that still need to be dealt with, mostly related to debt. There are two other crises, one of confidence in where we stand and what the future holds for us. The third crisis is in the real economy. If we take them in turns, some are felt in certain parts of the world more so than others. The confidence crisis, for example, is perhaps felt more in Europe and the US, than in China and India, two huge countries where there is enormous potential. That also applies to the crisis in the real economy, which is also less strong in countries like China and India. One must not over simplify – you cannot really separate these issues. Just look at the unemployment figures revealed in the US yesterday. They are very bad indeed. I think that the world is in for another hard year.
Syria has undergone massive economic reform since 2000. Business journalism is booming, but government officials complain that some business journalists are critical at the wrong moments, affecting public attitudes and harming reforms at times by raising, or lowering, expectations. The Financial Times is the doyen of business newspapers worldwide, with its 121-years of history. Should regulations be applied to business journalism?
What is the purpose of journalism? It is to explain to people what is going on, why, and what does it mean? Economic journalism is very important, because it deals with many of the things that drive so much else in the world. The Financial Times tries to answer these three questions as fairly as possible. Fairness, in our view, means covering all sides of any particular issue, and giving the reader enough information to make up his or her mind about conclusions. The first priority in business journalism, perhaps in all journalism, is to separate fact from comment. Take the tourism industry in Syria for example, which has enormous potential. If you were reporting on it, you would try to show the scale, what might it be, what it needs in order to grow, current projections, and other facts. It is our responsibility to try and analyze fact, as fairly as possible, to contribute to the debate. Then in a different part of the paper from the space allocated to “the facts,” we have a column of editorial comments in which the editor sets out the view of the paper about what should be done.

It is very important that the reader can distinguish between factual analysis and the point of view of The Financial Times. Let us take our recent coverage of the events in Iran. The editors tried to report as fairly as possible – at great length – from the government’s perspective, as well as that of the demonstrators, in its news columns. In its editorials, however, the FT said, “we think the government of Iran should not be behaving like this.” Perhaps the best way forward for business journalism in Syria is to concentrate on analysis as fairly as possible, with stories that represent all sides of an issue, and distinguish this from commentary.

One thing that is on the mind of publishers worldwide is the future of paper magazines and newspapers. The world is heading towards online publishing, and major publications, like the Christian Science Monitor, have abandoned their print version. What is the vision at the Financial Times for the future of print journalism?

First of all, the statistics show that the number of printed newspapers in the world is actually increasing. Last year I think it went up by 5 - 7%. When people talk about newspapers dying, this really depends on where in the world this is happening. In Bangladesh, for example, there are 22 daily newspapers. In India the printed press is growing at a furious rate, and this is the case even in China, which is not a free country in terms of press.
In the case of The Financial Times and many of the markets in which we operate, there is a steady move towards more and more web-based publishing. For example, we have the biggest foreign language website in Chinese. As for the future, two things are going to happen. People are going to be getting more and more information from the net. Second, there will be a change in the device on which people read their online newspapers. The current PC may soon be out-of-date. People are going to be reading newspapers through devices like the Kindle, which will probably develop into a full-color wireless tablet connected to the Internet. It would have to be bigger than the current device, and already a company called Plastic Logic is making a very thin device, which you can fold, and on which you can receive a full newspaper page. For now, these tablets are primarily for books but we think they will be used for newspapers and magazines as well. This means that the transition will happen on an electronic basis, but online newspapers will not necessarily be read through a PC. We are very excited about that.
Many, especially the older generation, are still more comfortable reading a print newspaper, “feeling it” while they drink their morning coffee.
That applies to me as well, but I think that old-timers have also gotten used to the Kindle surprisingly quickly. I have several friends in the US who are quite old, yet cannot now live without the Kindle. One of them is 75-years old, for example, and he has just downloaded 12 books. We are also one of the world’s biggest publishers of all kinds of books including education at Pearson. Just imagine that one day – soon – you can tell your child that you no longer need to buy schoolbooks. You can download your biology or algebra books on your tablet, and when you come to a picture, you can click on it, and bring it to life, because you would be connected to the Internet. This will not apply immediately, to all parts of the world, because it depends on respective mobile systems, the Internet, and wireless networks. In Africa, for example, it would happen quickly but not in Syria, because in order to get this technology, Syria needs to update its mobile system.
What is the vision for Pearson, which is, as you say, the world’s largest educational publisher?

We believe in education in the broadest sense of the word. The Latin root of the word education is “educare,” which means literally to “lead people out,” and broaden their understanding. We are interested in education, not only in schools and universities, but also throughout life and in books, - both fiction and illustrated, that broaden one’s horizons. We are very committed to “leading people out,” and helping them to develop themselves. We have got big business in Egypt and the Gulf, and have started in Iran. It’s not just education for Europe or the US; it’s education for the entire world.
Forward magazine is in its thirtieth issue, approaching its third year, and our sister magazine AIiqtisadi, is in its seventieth, and well into its sixth year. We are not The Financial Times, but we certainly hope to achieve that stature one day. A veteran of the publication business like yourself would certainly have words of wisdom to give two rising publications like ours. What is your advice for success?

The most important thing in any publication, whether delivered electronically or by pigeon are the words. When somebody puts Forward Magazine down, and says, “I am glad I read this. I learned something I did not know,” this is a real achievement. I still remember when I was first hired at The Financial Times, where Sir Gordon Newton, one of our great editors, told me, “our job is to provide the information that everybody in business, finance and public affairs needs, in order to make a good decision.” This means that there is nothing more important than finding good journalists, and training them, because they are the ones who create good words. Photos, color, and layout are all important, but words are more valuable because they teach people new things and ideas. Another important editor once said to me, “The only important thing I do here is hiring people who write!”
Let’s end with the latest financial crisis, which is about to enter its second year. There has been much talk about the monumental effect it had on the banking and automobile industry, but has it hit the publication industry that strong as well?

It has definitively hit the media industry, newspapers, magazines, television, and anything that depends on advertisements to survive. It is likely to continue for several months, at the least.

What is the future vision of the Financial Times?
We want to go on doing what we try to do now: To produce the best news and the best analysis of everything that is important in the world. We want to ensure that our journalists are free to write and comment as they think fit, because we believe in the freedom of the press and we trust them absolutely to report accurately and fairly. In the future the FT may no longer be primarily produced on paper. There are all sorts of exciting new delivery systems just around the corner, but these will not affect our mission, which is to report the news “without fear or favor,” and to make sense of the world for some of its busiest and most influential people.

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