Case Study: The Financial Times' Regulation

Why interesting: Was part of PCC, decided not to join IPSO or get involved in Royal Charter, but to regulate itself

Who's in charge: Lionel Barber (its editor) who says its system will be will be "accountable, credible, robust and highly adaptable to meet the pace of change in our industry."

Why?

• They say that 'The FT has established a track record for treading its own path at a time of wrenching change in the news business'
• The FT has 'consistently taken decisions which have marked a break with established industry practice when it is the right thing to do for our readers and business'
• It 'reflects the FT's standing as an increasingly digital news operation with a global footprint'
• IPSO and Royal charter are national systems of media regulation, whereas the Financial Times's audience is more international, with 'more than three-quarters of our readers are now outside the UK. Our main competitors are global news organisations, each of whom applies its own system of independent regulation'
• FT "has been a long-standing member of the Press Complaints Commission' and their exemplary record 'shows that in the overwhelming majority of cases the FT has been exonerated from criticism' (only one ruling against the paper out of only 7 cases)
• 'Every newspaper and news group must make their own choice regarding regulation'

What will this self regulation look like?

• appointment of an ombusdman-style person, called an editorial complaints commissioner, who will be independent of the editor
• 'set up a new mechanism to handle reader complaints in the event that they feel our internal procedures fail to provide an adequate response or redress'
• creating a new position of editorial complaints commissioner
• The remit and reporting line will be set out in a public advertisement in due course. The successful candidate will be appointed by a three-person committee

Views on this: 

• Hacked off The public already know that Ipso is nothing more than a shabby facsimile of the discredited PCC. The FT's announcement today that it won't join demonstrates that Ipso will have even less credibility than the failed self-regulator it replaces.
• Roy Greenslade (who predicted this) 'unsurprised but the other major players who have yet to sign contracts with Ipso - The Guardian and The Independent - may not follow suit'
• Scottish Newspaper Society director and Ipso supporter John McLellan “It’s disappointing but not entirely unexpected. The rest of the industry will await with interest to see how the FT’s new in-house system deals with its first significant complaint.”