Lex at Gorkana
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This document provides information about Lex, the Financial Times' opinion column. It includes the names and contact information of the Lex team members around the world. It discusses when and how often Lex publishes articles, how PRs can be useful to Lex, and some things PRs should avoid. It also notes that almost everyone reads Lex in print and about 10% of FT.com visitors read Lex online, with readers generally spending more time on Lex articles than other FT content.
Lex at Gorkana
- 1. Lex at Gorkana January, 2013
- 2. Lex has quit the opinion arms race and is shrinking the size of the team London Stuart Kirk Work: +44 20 7873 3485 Mobile: +44 7702 761 037 (Head of Lex) John Casey New York Work: +44 20 7873 3938 Mobile: +44 7985 533 902 Robert Armstrong (Assistant editor) Work: +1 212 641 6134 Mobile: +1 646318 4592 Vince Boland (TMT, consumer, pharma) Work: +44 20 7873 4073 Mobile: +44 789 441 9108 Nicole Bullock (Energy, consumer, aerospace, utilities) Work: +1 212 641 6348 Hong Kong Mobile: +1 917 519 4179 Richard Stovin-Bradford (Financials, energy) Work: +44 20 7873 3554 Jennifer Hughes Mobile: +44 7738 574 242 Work: +1 212 641 6134 Currently hiring (Financials, mining) Mobile: +1 646318 4592 (Asia ex-China/India) Nikki Tait Work: +44 20 7873 4254 Mobile: +44 7712 854 943 (Industrials, construction, transport, regulation) Oliver Ralph Work: +44 20 7873 Mobile: +44 7843 418 140 (TMT, pharma, food & drink, real estate) Julia Grindell Work: +1 212 641 6514 Mobile: +1 917 213 4502 (China and India)
- 3. What is Lex allowed to write about? Lex can cover anything, but it is predominantly a corporate column, seeing the world through the eyes of a investor either in equities or credit Therefore, valuation is key. Companies (or any asset class for that matter) are never good or bad, they are only good or bad relative to a price When Lex does write about stories beyond companies, we try to do it where possible from a company perspective We only write purely macro or market stories when the news is significant AND we feel we can add value Lex never, ever writes about politics
- 4. There are plenty of opportunities throughout the day for PRs influence what goes on FT.com and in the paper 2:00pm 10:00am UK 1st web feed US email 5:00pm UK 2nd web Lex notes are written in three general 9am in 10:00am 2 3 timezones, each with its own edition New Yo 4 2:00pm 1 5 UK email rk 12 6 US 1st web feed 11 7 10 8 The aim is to feed the web with at 5:00pm Asia 2nd 9am in London 9 least one note every four hours on 9a m average in Ho web feed 8 10 ng Ko ng 7 11 5:00pm 6 12 5 1 US 2nd web feed 4 3 2 The longest gap between published Lex notes is about 7 hours between 1:00pm US close and Asian lunch time Asia 1st web feed 10:00am Asia email
- 5. When is the best and worst time to call, or to arrange meetings with Lex? ce ren e lin ne nfe ad ail ng dli co de em ea eti dit ail al er me bd E em ail pe ori ap em we uro m ia P 10 - As ea st S -E 1 -U -T m :00 :00 0p :15 0 0 0 2:0 3:0 9:3 7:0 10 11 Prepare for Perusing Writing Lunch Meetings paper the news editions 9am 9:30am 1:30pm 2:30pm 4pm 7pm Team at desks and After team meeting editor Lunch meetings Best time to Team busy amenable to calls discusses with each writer only if deadline arrange polishing Editor deciding line line, logic and argument met or off meetings web- up and thinking about Team at desks but on deadline published who will write what deadline notes for paper A bad time to call with unrelated issue
- 6. How can external PRs be useful to Lex and how can Lex be useful in return? What Lex wants What Lex can offer Original thoughts, facts and Fair representation hypotheses Transparency Contact with management Accountability Access to internal data and research Edits between online and paper An impartial sounding board A way in to editorial and newsroom Rapid help if necessary An impartial sounding board Intelligence scoops Intellectual capital and analysis Background, experience and history Another perspective to the news Ideas story Ideas A contrarian take on a bad story Ideas A platform for something too weird for the paper
- 7. Things that PRs sometimes do which, er, do not help Highlighting the good news, hiding the bad Repeating the company line Sloppy financial logic Arranging management calls at very short notice Joint interviews with the FT correspondent Over briefing chief executives Too many requests for feedback
- 8. Almost everyone reads Lex in the paper, and roughly a tenth of all visitors to ft.com do Subscribers accessing Lex content CEO/president/Chairman (High Quality), 2% Exec Mgmt (High Quality), 3% Technical/Business Specialist, 6% VP/Director (High Quality), 12% Senior Manager/Dept Head, 1% Professional, 11% Other C Level (High Quality), 3% Ow ner/Partner/ Proprietor, 9% Consultant, 6% Gov't/Int'l org official, 1% Manager/Supervisor, 12% MBA Student, 1% Other (retired, student etc), 34% 20% would be classed as high quality from an advertising targeting perspective
- 9. When is Lex read online? UK Readership 12% 10% Average Daily Readership (%) 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Time of Visit (GMT) Weekly Average Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Weekend
- 10. Lex readers are a curious bunch, or very bored (or senior enough to have their own office) Time spent on ft.com 10 9 8 Average Site Browsing (mins) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Lex Non-Lex