Financial Times appoints first ever innovation editor to maximise digital presence
The Financial Times (FT) has appointed John Thornhill as its first innovation editor and Roula Khalaf as deputy editor as it looks to ramp up its digital reach.
Thornhill will be responsible for overseeing the FT’s global comment team following plans to change the way the publication commissions, edits and publishes commentary across its platforms.
Thornhill will work closely with product development, data, audio, video and audience engagement teams at the publication to better harness how technology is used in its news distribution strategy.
Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, said that in his new role Thornhill “will have the important task of leading development of the next generation of digital comment.”
Thornhill has worked at the FT for 27 years, and previously held the positions of news editor, European editor, Asia editor, foreign news editor, and bureau chief in Moscow and Paris, before he was appointed to deputy editor. Thornhill also launched 'The 125' in 2014, a global members forum that has featured the likes of Mark Carney, Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates and Ana Botin.
Meanwhile on Roula Khalaf's appointment to deputy editor, Barber added: “She [Roula] will continue to drive the FT’s agenda-setting, borderless journalism at a significant time of growth in our digital presence and readership.”
Khalaf has been with the publication for 21 years, and served as Middle East editor, Middle East and north Africa correspondent, and most recently foreign editor and assistant editor. Khalaf won the Foreign Press Association’s Feature story of the year in 2013 for her series on Qatar.
Both will take up the roles from 1 February.
Additionally, as of the 1 March, Brooke Masters, companies editor, and Paul Murphy, editor of FT Alphaville, will also become assistant editors.