The Publisher Podcast by Media Voices Financial Times' Jon Slade on using AI as a catalyst to evolve, with quality journalism as the foundation
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Feb 9, 2026 Jon Slade, CEO of the Financial Times, steers subscriptions, licensing and AI strategy at the FT. He frames AI as part of broader disruption that reconnects publishers to strong journalism and brands. He discusses preferring direct corporate licensing, monetising archives into predictive data products, and experimenting with consumer AI features like summaries, translations and AskFT.
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Aim For Platform Independence
- Jon Slade frames cutting reliance on platforms (Google Zero) as a strategic option to create scarcity and independence.
- He views demand for paid access as a lever to reclaim control over distribution.
Archive As Predictive Intelligence
- FT used NLP and LLMs on 30 years of archive to extract predictive signals from sentiment and topics.
- These signals can predict Bank of England and US inflation moves more accurately than market indicators.
Two Ways To Sell Archive Data
- Package archival data into two products: refined signals you deliver and a controlled pipe customers query themselves.
- Offer different value tiers: high-value bespoke signals and lower-cost raw access with usage controls.