Financial Times seem to want their employees to branch out into the tech world in an attempt to get them to get more involved in the future of news consumption. To get this desired effect, the company are offering a £300 subsidy to their employees for them to purchase “a personal iPad or tablet”. Employees who are already lucky enough to own a tablet device will still get the subsidy to pay for whatever device they may have already purchased.
At the moment Financial Times holds on to 1800 employees who all seem to be eligible for the subsidy. It seems this is in effect a sort of Christmas bonus for their team, but the money seems to be classed as taxable income meaning they may have less to spend than they thought. Not to mention that some high-end tablet devices will set you back a lot more than £300. Still, this kind of move is giving us the impression that tablet devices could be potentially doing big things for journalism in the near future, and not just offer the convenience of “working while travelling” which Financial Times CEO John Ridding claims “is an increasing feature of our global organisation”.
The internal memo sent to their employees from CEO John Ridding read:
"I'm pleased to let you know that we are launching today a new initiative that will allow FT staff to claim a £300 (€350/ US$480) subsidy for the purchase of a personal iPad or tablet. This will run from today until 30th June 2011.
The FT is making this investment because digital channels and tablet devices are becoming increasingly important for us and the media industry in general, and as recognition of your contribution to our strong performance this year.
"The FT has set the pace among global media organisations for tablet editions, winning a prestigious award from Apple for our iPad app. We have also been a launch partner with Samsung on the Galaxy Tab.
"We have seen rapid growth in readership on these new devices, which support and extend our "channel neutral" strategy. Given their importance and the wave of innovation that we are seeing in applications and services, we want to encourage all our staff to be expert and experienced in using them.
"We need to fully understand their potential and share the user experience to better understand our customers and the developments and innovations taking place in the market. Tablet devices will also facilitate working while travelling, which is an increasing feature of our global organisation.
"The subsidy scheme will be combined with a series of masterclasses and workshops to help staff get the most from their devices and the applications that are currently available."
Via: Slash Gear