The Financial Times stands out as a remarkable example of subscription success. During this week’s INMA Subscription Masters Webinar, CEO Jon Slade offered a candid and compelling look into the company’s exceptional growth, the principles driving its success, and the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of journalism.

Greg Piechota, lead of the INMA Readers First Initiative, led the conversation with Slade and began with an overview of the company’s success, noting that it enjoys continued growth at a time when many publishers are reporting a slowdown.

A subscription powerhouse

Slade began by sharing a significant milestone: the FT’s global paying audience surpassed 3 million midyear, reaching the stretch target 18 months ahead of schedule. Of those, over 1.6 million are direct subscribers to FT.com and the Financial Times print edition.

This growth, he emphasised, is not accidental; it’s the result of a deliberate strategy anchored in producing journalism that is “authoritative, independent, and has integrity.”

That business model comes with a price tag, because creating something that people want to pay for is increasingly rare in the digital age. It comes down to the ability to invest in and produce high-quality journalism:

“If you want people to pay for your journalism,” Slade said, “then you’ve got to be creating stuff that’s unique. The stakes are quite high because if you begin to chip away at that, if you begin to pump out journalism that’s a little bit second-rate, you very quickly undermine your whole business model.”

FT embraces the reality that quality journalism is expensive to produce. The value equation is clear: Readers are willing to pay for content that stands apart in depth, reliability, and relevance.

Building direct relationships

The second pillar of success in the FT’s formula is sustainability, which Slade links directly to building meaningful relationships with readers: “That really is the name of the game for us,” he said. “It’s that direct relationship which drives all aspects — or certainly the vast majority — of our business model.”

Subscriptions are the most obvious outcome, but the benefits extend far beyond. The FT’s advertising model, for instance, relies on quality over quantity, powered by rich audience data. Its events business, which now hosts more than 300 events annually, thrives on cross-marketing to engaged subscribers. Even its consulting arm, FT Strategies, draws on the FT’s deep understanding of reader behaviour.

Piechota asked Slade to clarify how a “direct relationship” works in practice, noting, “Many publishers say they prioritise direct relationships with readers.” Slade emphasised it’s more than just lip service and more than just a transaction. It’s about understanding what readers value, what they need, and how to serve them better.

“A direct relationship with a reader allows you to understand what it is they like about your journalism, what it is don’t, where you can add value to them, and at what time,” he explained.

That includes personalised content recommendations, pricing strategies during renewals, and tools like enterprise sharing, which allows business subscribers to share articles with up to 250 clients. These innovations stem from listening to readers and analysing behaviour to see what works:

“So [a direct relationship] certainly means applying tools and value to our customers, but it also means developing new products based around what we understand about our readers as well.” 

Navigating the changing media landscape

Slade acknowledged the dramatic changes and challenges facing news publishers today. Social media referrals have dropped by more than 50% in the past two years, and search traffic is declining rapidly. Many publishers are reporting slowdowns, but the FT continues to grow — despite charging around £50 per month for a subscription.

The key, Slade argued, is maintaining control over the pricing, distribution, and rights to the journalism. “If there is no scarcity around your journalism … then you have effectively no market.”

The FT has long embraced scarcity through its metred paywall, which limits free access and encourages subscriptions. It also avoids giving away content to aggregators unless there’s a clear strategic purpose. Slade emphasised the need to control elements including pricing, rights, transparency, and distribution — especially in the age of AI.

“If you’re letting anybody come onto your Web site and do whatever they want with your journalism, then you have no scarcity, you have no control of price or rights or transparency or distribution,” he said.

Whilst news media companies need to safeguard against giving away content to aggregators, partnering with AI companies can be effective — if done strategically, Slade said. For example, FT has a licensing deal with OpenAI “that allows them to crawl our site for specific purposes.”

The agreement allows the FT to set boundaries around how its content is used, summarised, and represented, he said. “A license gives you the opportunity to say, ‘You have misrepresented that. You hold the liability.’”

Without these safeguards, news publishers risk disintermediation, where platforms profit from journalism without returning value to its creators.

Engaging the next generation

One of the most pressing challenges for news media companies is reaching younger readers. Slade said the FT now asks all subscribers and registrants for their birth year, which allows it to segment users by age cohort. This data helps the FT understand where younger readers come from, what they read, and how they engage.

But data isn’t enough. The FT is also investing in qualitative research, talking directly to young people about their habits and preferences:

“You can’t beat getting in a room with them and saying, ‘Where do you get your news from? What do you think of as news?’ Because even that notion is challenged and increasingly people are saying they’re pointing at opinion podcasts, for example, and saying, ‘I get my news from that source or from that channel.’”

To lower barriers, the FT offers free access to readers under 18, thanks to a sponsored programme. It’s also experimenting with explainer formats tailored to younger audiences, recognising that traditional news formats may not resonate.

“We’ve just put in place our first full-time explainer editor with a specific view to engaging younger readers,” Slade said. “We know that kind of explainer, visual journalism resonates very well.”

As the media landscape continues to evolve, Slade said the FT’s guiding principles — quality, sustainability, direct relationships, and control — are more relevant than ever: “The point of principles is when things are uncertain, you can defer to the principle and it helps you to guide your way through it.”

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