In her last year as a journalist for the Financial Times, Angela Mackay made the Guinness Book of World Records. Her byline appeared across the 88-storey, Hong Kong skyscraper Two IFC, in a 20,000 square-metre wraparound ad for the FT Asia.
The poster was entered into the illustrious book in 2004 as the ‘world’s largest ad on a building’.
Three years later, after honing her commercial sense as regional VP of sales, the boisterous Australian is at ground level again. Mackay is now the highest-sitting director of the FT Asia, with more than just the profits and losses of other companies to report. “I have to worry about my own now,” she says, with a laugh.
Certainly on the surface, the FT appears to be in good shape. The newspaper reported a £10 million (US$20 million) profit in its most recent interim report, its highest in years. Print adspend increased five per cent year-on-year, and online adspend surged by 50 per cent from a lower base.
Furthermore, the paper’s global circulation of 450,000 has been raised several times this year, while many of its competitors have reduced theirs.
“We’re punching well above our weight,” Mackay says.
Perhaps, but such glowing figures were cemented well before the high-profile marriage of Rupert Murdoch and the FT ’s key Asian rival, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The WSJ Asia is no cash cow, but Rupert Murdoch, for all his editorial shortcomings, has a history of turning publications, such as the New York Post and The Times into profit machines.
So now that the businessman extraordinaire has command of the WSJ’s fleet of distribution centres, and a global circulation of over two million, the FT will have to do better than to simply appeal to the C-suite.
Mackay’s remit will be under no small pressure from parent company Pearson, especially given that readership and subscription of daily newspapers in Asia are growing faster here than anywhere else in the world, according to the World Association of Newspaper 2007 report.
Mackay has little to add to the excessive speculation over her rival, except to vaguely quip that, “many of our competitors err on the side of being too American”.
If the FT Asia were in any trouble, you’d never be able tell from her enthusiastic manner. Perhaps it is because she has survived worse times at the FT, such as the time her company reported a £75 million loss in 2002.
“Pearson never sold us off when we were losing money. Now we’re profiting. I think we’re in a pretty good space and well-positioned to move forward rapidly,” she says.
Furthermore, like any former journalist-turned-saleswoman, Mackay adds, “The business cycle has tipped up. All of our advertisers have been very busy, especially the banks, and have increased their number of global campaigns. Many companies are coming back after not advertising for years.”
Apart from the economy, Mackay can take something else for granted: the title’s editorial strength.
“If I’d been asked to join a sales job from any other newspaper, I would’ve said ‘never’,” she claims. Unlike many Murdoch-owned properties, few will pause to question the editorial integrity of the FT.
Part of this can be credited to the fact that many of its top executives - including Mackay, her boss, CEO John Ridding and her new FT China president, James Kynge - are veteran journalists.
“Being a journalist gives you a fantastic global view,” she says. “You can see if the editorial idea will have revenue possibilities. On the other hand, you know when a commercial idea would never work with the editorial team. I’d never try to influence my editorial brethren because I certainly would’ve given anyone short shrift who tried to do that to me.”
How will she turn this asset into long-term profitability? One strategy, she says, involves “a lot of investment in the digital product we have in English and Chinese. You’ll see a lot of changes in the next six months”.
Another appears to be a deliberate attempt to position the FT as a global newspaper. This is most evident in its latest brand campaign, the FT ’s biggest initiative in Hong Kong since the Two IFC wraparound.
“We’re starting to achieve our goal of becoming a global product, rather than just a British product that happens to have a couple of international editions,” she says.
The broadsheet also tweaked its layout in March, Mackay’s first month in her new office, marking one of the most significant changes in the newspaper’s 120-year history. But the FT doesn’t have plans to make any other drastic physical changes, Mackay assures.
“I wouldn’t rule anything out except tabloid. We’d never go tabloid,” she says, firmly.
Angela Mackay’s CV
2007 Executive director, head of Asia-Pacific, Financial Times
2005 Regional advertising director, Asia-Pacific, Financial Times
2003 Asia investment editor, Financial Times
2002 Hong Kong editor, The Sunday Telegraph
1999 Asia editor, Sunday Business
