In conversation with Financial Times Editor Roula Khalaf
Photography by World Economic Forum on Flickr
Isobel Helme reports on an interview with Financial Times Editor Roula Khalaf hosted by Women in Journalism.
On the evening of 16 June, 120 women around the country sat at their computer screens, expectantly waiting for Roula Khalaf, first female Editor of the Financial Times, to make their Zoom acquaintance. The conversation was hosted by Eleanor Mills, the chair of Women in Journalism. According to its website, Women in Journalism is a “networking, campaigning and training organisation, providing guidance and support for women working in print, broadcast and online media at every stage of their careers”.
Born in Beirut, Khalaf grew up during the Lebanese Civil War, later moving to New York to work as a staff writer at Forbes. She made quite a stir; she is referenced in Jordan Belfort’s The Wolf of Wall Street as "(…) an insolent reporter from Forbes magazine,” who “coined me as a twisted version of Robin Hood, who robs from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers”. “She deserved an A for cleverness, of course," Belfort admitted. Some might remember her character’s few on-screen seconds in the film adaptation. Khalaf later joined the Financial Times as North Africa correspondent in 1995 - she explained that “people tend to stay at the FT for a long time” - and was promoted to Middle East editor, leading coverage of the Arab Spring. She climbed the ranks to foreign editor and then deputy editor, eventually replacing Lionel Barber as Editor in 2020.
Khalaf began her role as Editor shortly before COVID-19 hit. She explained that her first few months on the job were far from what she had expected. Having covered the rise of the virus in Asia and its subsequent spread to Italy, she had figured that it was “only a matter of time” before the virus reached London. In preparation for lockdown, her team conducted a couple of “dry runs” from home, which to her surprise went without a hitch. She remarked that she had been amazed by how smooth the transition was, but that she missed the creativity and serendipity of wandering over to the news desk for a chat with reporters.
Asked whether COVID-19 or Brexit was set to have a greater impact on the UK economy, Khalaf responded that the virus will undoubtedly be more disruptive. She explained that “COVID-19 is the biggest story we will ever have,” and that many people will lose their jobs, certain sectors will struggle, and countless companies will not survive. She also claimed that the world will face economic challenges “like nothing we’ve ever seen,” and that the pandemic will cause “the worst recession we’ll see in our lifetime,” making the 2008 recession look like “a walk in the park”. However, Khalaf said that she was encouraged by what she had heard from Europe in terms of striving for a greener economy. She suggested that climate change will see faster progress, arguing that “recovery this time has to be greener”.
Mills pressed Khalaf about the importance of data in editorial decision-making. Khalaf explained that, although it is crucially important, data does not make the decisions; rather, her editorial instinct is usually mirrored by it. She described the daily morning conference in which she is presented with statistics including what people have been reading, why, when, how they gained access to it, and whether there are patterns that can be gleaned. Questioned on subscription services and paying for good-quality journalism, Khalaf responded, “People have to pay for good journalism – there’s no other answer”. She explained that lots of newspapers will not survive the pandemic, in particular those that provide free content, and highlighted that new digital start-ups are facing serious difficulty.
According to the Financial Times, Khalaf “has been a driver of diversity initiatives in the newsroom, in particular those focused on increasing the FT’s female readership and talent pool”. In terms of BAME journalists on the staff, Khalaf conceded that there were very few, but that some progress had been made on the trainee and internship level that had “opened their minds and attention to recruits that they might not have come across before”. She also explained to the audience that she is in the process of appointing a talent acquisition officer and putting together a group to advise her on diverse recruitment. Khalaf, praised for her gender diversity promotion efforts, explained, “I’m pleased with that progress, but we definitely still have work to do”.
Photography by Financial Times on Flickr
One of the questions posed during the Q&A referred to whether women are expected to behave like men to succeed in journalism. Khalaf explained that, although perhaps this was the case 20 years ago, nowadays it isn’t necessarily so. She recounted the anecdote of someone telling her before her appointment as Editor that she ought to “project her voice and be less softly spoken,” which she interpreted as needing to become “more like a man”. She explained that on one occasion, when being talked over in a meeting, she was forced to shout, “I am trying to speak!”; she asked her then-boss to speak up if it happened again, which made a noticeable difference. She also told the tale of being late to work because she couldn’t get her son to go through the school gates. Numerous female colleagues emailed her to thank her, saying that they appreciated her normalising and drawing attention to this experience often faced by mothers.
Khalaf explained that the Financial Times was facing a branding issue; focus group studies showed that some women believed that the FT was not designed for them, but rather for men who “can go to a dinner party and show off”. Her team initiated a variety of projects to change the perception of the FT, including focusing on images and tracking what women preferred to read. Somewhat surprisingly, their research showed that female readers were overwhelmingly interested in accounting stories; she attributed this to the number of women in professional services including accounting. When asked by the Guardian columnist Jane Martinson what advice Khalaf would give to young women who are keen to become financial business journalists, she explained that although they do not need to have a finance degree, and that they do not recruit finance experts, candidates must not be afraid of numbers.
On the broader topic of young journalists considering journalism as a career field, Khalaf explained, “it would be tragic if we started telling young people that this was a profession without a future”. She stated that the profession is both a job and an adventure, and “would not for a minute” discourage people from pursuing journalism as a career. She urged young journalists to “persist,” claiming “it’s the greatest job you’ll ever have – and society needs it!”.