The Financial Times has announces the global expansion of its award-winning financial blog FT Alphaville. As part of the initiative, FT Alphaville will be extending its innovative Market Live coverage to the US, offering real-time financial commentary on Wall Street. The move is being led by Paul Murphy, Editor of FT Alphaville, who has now relocated to New York to drive the site from the FT’s New York bureau.
With correspondents now in place in Tokyo and New York, the core FT Alphaville team in London will be managed by the FT’s senior stock market correspondent Neil Hume. The site has picked up three prestigious Webby awards in the past two years.
FT Alphaville’s daily Markets Live sessions employ instant-message technology, allowing journalists and market participants to discuss market developments in real time. The existing London session, held at 11 am local time each day, will be complemented by a new Wall Street session at 11 am ET, focusing on US markets.
The sessions will be hosted, respectively, by Hume and Murphy, assisted by Bryce Elder and Miles Johnson in London, and by Stacy-Marie Ishmael in New York.
The site is also planning an expansion of its popular 6AM Cut emails, which provide a free news briefing service for finance professionals right at the start of the working day. On top of the existing London-focused briefing, new editions of the Cut are being introduced for the US and Asia.
Paul Murphy, Editor of FT Alphaville, said: “As FT Alphaville has continued to grow we have been working to expand our coverage both geographically and by asset class. Developing our US coverage further is a natural next step, especially when blogging and new media in general is so much more advanced in the US than other parts of the globe. While we feel we have lots to offer our US readers, we are also aware that we have a lot to learn from the vibrant American financial media scene.”
Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director, FT.com, said: “We’re always looking to expand our coverage to offer high-quality journalism around the world. The US is FT.com’s biggest market, with more subscribers and registered users than in any other region, and we see a great deal of potential in building on that substantial base of loyal US readers. As one of the FT’s most progressive digital teams, we are confident FT Alphaville’s move will increase our overall appeal in the US.”