Paper Monitor
10:43 UK time, Thursday, 21 June 2007
A service highlighting the RICHES of the daily press.
At times such as this, when financial stories push their way from the business pages to the front pages, Paper Monitor feels the reassurance of reaching for its copy of the Financial Times. But since the pink 'un hiked its cover price by a whopping 30% at the start of the week, to a pocket hole-burning £1.30, seeking its sagely advice on matters such as the pros and cons of private equity is not an option to be resorted to lightly.
Yesterday, one of Britain's richest men, Sir Ronald Cohen, remarked on Radio 4 that the growing wealth gap could spark riots on the streets of London. Has the FT considered its role in provoking such anticipated civil disorder? It's now almost double the price of the other most expensive quality newspapers. Agreed, it's never been the default morning purchase of your average street cleaner or manual labourer, but with this latest price hike it has clearly elevated itself into the rarefied realms of the Jet Set (if the name of its glossy supplement, How to Spend It, hadn't already made that clear enough).
It rather spoils the spirit of optimism stoked by the FT on its relaunch some weeks ago, when it resurrected its original slogan "Without fear, without favour". Make that "…without favour, except for those who can't pay off their mortgage with a lump sum from their annual bonus".
If rioting is, indeed, the result of this growing wealth chasm you could do worse than bet that leading the charge will be a constituency of angry, disillusioned middle managers and hard-pressed captains of small to medium-sized enterprises who can no longer afford their daily FT-fix and, instead, must to make do with the financial pages of Metro.
The 
