The main changes are new head-line fonts and more colour - good for advertisers, but nothing radical.
The most significant development is the increased use of pointers to FT.com. It's good to see that the FT is embracing a cross-platform approach, something the quality nationals have been doing for years.
It seems ironic that despite reporting with such depth and insight on business, the FT is traditional and risk-averse in the way it innovates and trades within the wider market.
Such subtle changes won't lead to a dramatic change in people's perceptions of the FT, but the decision to integrate its platforms more closely is a good one.
Considering the FT's UK readership is London-biased, with many readers travelling by tube or train, and that it has one of the youngest audiences in the quality market, it would be interesting to see the paper make a bolder step such as changing format.
Perhaps this hesitancy is due to complacency. The FT is a functional product delivering information that readers either need or don't. The lack of a true print competitor and the recent change of The Business from a newspaper to a magazine format have exacerbated this.
The more integrated push to the online offering through the newspaper should help to grow the FT's web traffic. The unique users of FT.com have remained fairly static over the past years, while the online marketplace has grown significantly.
Media brands need to think more broadly about how they engage with readers and the FT's changes show one way of broadening a brand.
- Tony Giordani is press manager at Vizeum UK