Hot Off the Press: Roula Khalaf is taking the Finacial times to new heights

After graduating from IC, Khalaf spent a year at AUB before transferring to Syracuse University in New York State, where she completed her BA at the P.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. She received an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University before launching her journalism career with Forbes Magazine in New York.

As she recounts, “I began my career at Forbes. I started off as a fact checker, then wrote a column about accounting, finding stories where there was fraud or other accounting games played. Then we moved to the UK, so I applied for a job at the FT and I was hired as a North Africa Correspondent.”

News travels fast. So does Roula Khalaf’s ‘83 schedule. True to character, she has approximately 15 minutes to discuss her life and career before dropping her son off at school and beginning what will likely be a very busy work day. What Khalaf omits, however, is that her stint on the accounting column included one of the first public takedowns of the infamous “Wolf of Wall Street,” stockbroker Jordan Belfort. Her article was so impactful that a fictionalized Khalaf is portrayed in Martin Scorsce’s popular 2013 film of the same name.

In the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pandemic, and the compounding effects of these major world affairs on global markets, as the Editor of the Financial Times, it is a miracle Ms. Khalaf has any time to speak at all.

Yup. The Financial Times. Whether or not scanning its pinkpages is synonymous with your morning coffee, most are familiar with this leading newspaper. Not only is the publication considered the world’s most important business read - consulted by senior financial decision makers - but it has also gained increased recognition for its internationally-minded politicaleconomic analysis, data-driven journalism, and rich cultural coverage. And, since January 2020, Roula Khalaf is in charge of it all. Beyond securing her legacy in popular culture, Khalaf’s 27-year career at the FT has been incredibly rich and rewarding - for both her and the publication.

Growing up in Beirut with a view of the iconic Le Commodore Hotel, the preferred outpost of the wayfaring journalists covering the country’s Civil War, Khalaf was exposed, and drawn, to the enigmatic and adventurous life of a foreign correspondent. Despite the instability around her, she remembers her time at IC fondly, stating, “I still think of high school at IC as some of my favorite memories.”

After joining the FT in 1995, Khalaf was sent to cover the Algerian Civil War, “a big “If you are interested in the story at the time, especially for European audiences,” she world, if you are interested notes. Over the years, her sharp coverage of socio-political and in public service, if you economic developments in are interested in making Algeria, Iraq, Iran, and the Arab Spring, catapulted her up the a difference, this is a great path.” ladder. She rose through the paper’s ranks - from a regional correspondent to Middle East Editor, to Foreign Editor. Her work has also garnered her much acclaim and global recognition. In 2009, Khalaf was awarded the International Media Awards “Peace Through Media’’ Award for her high quality news reporting and analysis. Her 2013 series, Qatar: From Emirate to Empire, won the Foriegn Press Association’s Feature Story of the Year, and in 2016, she was named the Foreign Commentator of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards. 2016 was also the year Khalaf was promoted to deputy editor of the FT by her predecessor, Lionel Barber. The

promotion “was a surprise,” she states, but clearly, she was up to the job. As deputy editor she led a network of over 100 foreign correspondents and oversaw a range of awardwinning editorial projects and newsroom initiatives.

Perhaps one of her most notable actions as deputy was a comprehensive and data-driven gender diversity campaign. Khalaf relays, “I was part of a focus group at the FT that was looking at why we have a lot of women subscribers, but women were not engaging with and reading our content.” A related study asked readers to conjure an image of the FT in their minds. The majority of participants described a man in a suit, or even a man with his back turned. Ultimately, intimidating and unwelcoming - particular for its female audience.

Khalaf explains, “The study revealed that the FT was intimidating to women because it was essentially seen as a man. So, we started to think, how can we change this perception of the FT? We started to pay more attention to pictures and tracking which topics our women readers engage with.” When Khalaf was named editor in January 2020, her appointment as the first female editor in the paper’s 131year history garnered unprecedented media attention. She is not the first woman editor of a major “legacy” news publication, but, with the newspaper’s reputation as the preferred source for the predominantly white, male financial elite, her appointment was a surprising, but very welcome, breath of fresh air.

Gender aside, Khalaf’s hands-on management style was exactly what the publication needed when COVID-19 swept the globe less than eight weeks after her promotion. The FT’s position as a global newspaper covering the virus’ initial outbreak in China and its arrival to Europe and ensuing chaos in Italy, granted Khalaf and her team some foresight in preparing for an inevitable halt to normal operations. They had a chance to practice some “dry runs” before their offices moved completely online.

To do so, they developed the JanetBot, a programme that analyzes the images on the homepage to ensure enough women are represented, and the “She Said He Said” bot, which tracks how many women are quoted in articles.

The issue is larger than the newspaper of course. The business and financial spheres that the FT largely focuses on are male heavy - particularly the senior leadership who is often the focus of media attention. But female voices are there, and Khalaf pushes her staff to find them.

Since these targeted efforts began, the average proportion of engagement from its female subscribers has risen by 4% and the percent of women featured in its columns rose from 20% - 30% over the course of 2020. These efforts are quietly seeping into the culture of the FT. Khalaf notes that staff now are self-monitoring gender balance on the homepage, before the bots alert them.

Now at its helm, Khalaf is determined to further diversify the newsroom itself. “I am very keen to work on gender diversity,” she states. “For a while, we have been hiring more women than men at the entry level, especially amongst our young talent. But our issue is that, because people tend to stay at the FT for a very long time, as you go up the echelons, there are far more men than women. I have made it a point to broaden the pipeline and promote more women to senior positions. I’m hoping that within The biggest challenge was not necessarily adjusting to a new leadership role in the midst of the pandemic, but was navigating how to manage a widespread and disjointed team.

“I think the biggest challenge I found was that you had to manage in a very different way,” she states. “The journalists had a huge story to cover - the biggest story of their lives. On one hand, everybody was very motivated because it was an incredible privilege to report on. But at the same time, everyone still had to deal with their personal lives, juggling their children and homeschooling alongside their jobs. The pandemic also took a toll on peoples’ mental health and you had to be conscious of that. It required different types of management. To me, that was a really new and unexpected part of the job.”

“Perhaps my management style was good for that time,” Khalaf states upon reflection. “I push very hard but at the same time, I always try to understand people’s circumstances. It’s more of my style to be very hands-on and try to think of the staff’s wellbeing.”

Pushing prescribed stereotypes and gendered assumptions, Khalaf has shown that thoughtfulness, care, and human perspective are not incongruous to hardhitting, high-caliber journalism and competitive financial growth. Very much on the contrary - she has led the paper through a hugely tumultuous period towards some of the

Khalaf leads the morning meeting

biggest growth it has experienced. She is razor sharp in her assertions, visions, and goals for the newspaper’s future.

“On the business side, it was very hard at the beginning of the pandemic. Economies essentially ground to a halt and there was total paralysis. But as time went on, we got more readers.” She recalls. In 2020, page views increased by 42% and subscription revenues were up by 16%.

Though Khalaf asserts that the core of the FT “is and will always remain business and finance,” she notes how the pandemic also led to increased recognition of the newspaper’s broader coverage and analysis and her hopes to push the paper in different directions.

“We have always done a lot more than just business coverage. I just don’t think it was as well-known or recognized. Take culture for example - the FT Weekend is, in my opinion, the best cultural product on the market. We also discovered that we were really good at science and health reporting. It was a real moment for our data journalism, and our journalists did extremely well in covering the pandemic. Some of them have really become stars who are followed all over the world now. The past two years have highlighted that our high standards of reporting do go beyond business and finance.”

At the same time, Khalaf states, “I have also tried to take the FT in new directions that are relevant to our core readership. One of the first things I did as editor was to start the Climate Capital Hub to expand and deepen our coverage of climate change. In many ways, it was the perfect moment because it has become an increasing concern for businesses. So I think we always have to keep in mind what is relevant to our readership, while staying attuned to broader issues.”

Ever an example of both innovation and sound judgment.

It is both a precarious and exciting time for journalism today. Social media has changed news consumption as we know it, and the proliferation of both fake news and harsh censorship has made many reluctant to trust even the most reliable and high-quality news sources. At the same time, the challenges of modernity underscore the necessity of great journalism to provide credible information and to hold power accountable.

“I think Journalism is still the most exciting and most relevant field, because it’s an extremely fulfilling career,” Khalaf states with a glimmer in her eye. “It’s very demanding, and you have to work very hard to make a name for yourself and to make an impact. But if you are interested in the world, if you are interested in public service, if you are interested in making a difference, this is a great path.”

It seems that IC’s global-minded approach to education and drive to instill values of service may have rubbed off - just a bit.