'Financial Times' moves to single global edition

• Editor calls for more news aggregation online%2C as reporters are urged to write %27news in context%27
• More pages will be pre-planned and feature data and graphics
• Combined edition may be a single section product

The Financial Times, one of the few global newspapers that charge for online stories, will move further away from its print legacy by eliminating most editions and steering more resources to digital offerings.

The British paper, owned by Pearson, plans to launch a single global print edition starting in the first half of 2014, which will result in closing of the multiple editions that are updated throughout the night for readers in various countries where it was distributed.

With breaking news published real-time on FT.com, the combined edition -- which could be a single section product -- will contain more pre-planned stories and the articles that first appear on the website.

"The 1970s-style newspaper publishing process – making incremental changes to multiple editions through the night – is dead," wrote FT editor Lionel Barber in a memo to staff that was published on its website Wednesday.

A "small print-focused team," working alongside a larger web production team, will produce the paper. Changes in late evenings will be minimal and more standard pages will designed and laid out earlier in the day. There will be more flexibility for a U.K. edition with U.K. news pages, but the overall design effort will focus on "show pages" that showcase data and graphics, he said

Barber also called for changes in news gathering, urging reporters and editors to shift away from "reactive" news stories to value-added "news in context." This editorial shift toward features and analysis pieces means editors will have to step up their efforts in planning stories and "intelligent commissioning" of assignments to take advantage of peak viewing times.

With reporters required to write more contextual stories, The Financial Times' online edition will "concentrate on smart aggregation of content from our own journalists and third parties," Barber said.

"Where once we planned around page lay-outs, we will now adopt a news bulletin-style approach," he said.

The Financial Times was one of the first major newspapers to establish a global subscription business. Last year, the paper's online subscriptions surpassed its print circulation for the first time. Digital subscriptions now surpass print sales by more than 100,000 accounts, the paper said.