Financial Times launches Global Commercial Academy
The Financial Times has launched an academy for its commercial team to keep staff up to speed with skills and insight in the digital advertising sector.
Education: The FT has launched a Global Commercial Academy
The FT Global Commercial Academy will offer staff courses held in London, New York, Hong Kong and Paris. Last month, MD of FT.com Rob Grimshaw told The Drum that the FT would make a substantial shift into the development of educational services this year. The FT’s parent company, Pearson, operates one of the world’s largest education companies.
Jon Slade, commercial director of global digital advertising and insight at the FT, said: “With an increased focus on content-based advertising, programmatic trading and HTML5 formats for mobile, the Global Commercial Academy is a vital part of our strategy. It will ensure our team remains at the forefront of developments in advertising.”
Lauren Henderson, global head of learning and development at the FT, added: “With a growing focus on education, the FT is uniquely positioned to offer staff industry-leading professional development.
“The GCA is an important addition to our award-winning employee training programme, including FT Digital Learning Week, which helps attract and develop the industry’s sharpest talent.”
The release of the FT Group’s annual figures last month showed a rise in profits of 17 per cent to £55m, driven strongly by the FT’s investment into digital services. Nearly half of all traffic (45 per cent) to the Financial Times in 2013 came from mobile, while digital subscriptions to FT.com grew b 31 per cent to 415,000.