FT Alphaville launches the Long Room

The Financial Times today announced the launch of the Long Room, www.ft.com/alphaville, a new comment and analysis area at the award winning financial blog FT Alphaville where finance professionals are invited to share their own research and offer thoughts on the work of others. The launch of the Long Room comes after some historic and turbulent times in the world’s financial community.

The first of several forthcoming FT.com developments, this new extension to the FT Alphaville community is a digital venue aimed at asset managers, professional investors and other market professionals that takes its cue from the original Long Room Restaurant and Bar off Throgmorton Street in the City of London, once a hub of financial chatter.

The new design of The Long Room also indicates how the design of FT.com will develop over the coming months and reflects a more sophisticated look and feel that is consistent with Financial Times brand - clean, uncluttered, spacious while being scannable and readable. In addition to developments online, FT Alphaville is also expanding overseas. Stacy-Marie Ishmael, will be the first FT Alphaville blogger and writer based in New York covering the financial markets and communities on the East Coast.

Paul Murphy, editor of FT Alphaville, said: “The launch of the Long Room is the next logical step for FT Alphaville. We are giving our readers even greater freedom to steer the agenda, providing a forum for debate that suits the FT Alphaville readers’ thirst for quick, interactive content.”

Discussions are grouped by topic on a series of ‘virtual tables’ that users can join to add their point of view around a specific issue or market development creating group debates. The Long Room takes user-generated content on FT.com to the next level by also giving readers and users the opportunity to discuss the site’s top stories, or begin new discussions of their own in a combination of a web forum and blog comment structure.

The Long Room will be free to use, but participation is by invitation only following registration. To contribute to the Long Room, users will be required to complete a short online membership form.

FT Alphaville is a free daily news and commentary service for financial market professionals. Highly regarded in the industry, the FT Alphaville blog has scooped numerous awards, including both of the best business blog awards at the Webbys in May 2008; the Judges Panel award and the Peoples’ Choice award. FT Alphaville also recently won the inaugural award for online journalism at the 2008 Harold Wincott Awards.

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For further information, please contact:

Anne Wheeler, Financial Times, +44 20 7873 3811 or anne.wheeler@ft.com

Drew Benvie / Ivana Farthing, Hotwire PR, +44 (0) 20 7608 4638 or ft.com@hotwirepr.com

About the Financial Times:

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business newspapers, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 417,570 (ABC figures, August 2008) and a readership of 1.4 million people worldwide. FT.com is the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 7.1 million unique users, generating 72 million page views (ABCe figures, March 2008).