The author argues the FT has shifted from a “candid elite forum” and the “best of the British free-thinking tradition,” to a “timid, risk-averse rag."
If there’s one newspaper you’d think would be immune to accusations of being “woke,” it’s surely the Financial Times.
Yet according to an opinion piece in the Telegraph, the 138-year-old FT, whose pink pages are as much a symbol of the City as bowler hats and pinstripe suits, has succumbed to the clutches of the woke brigade.
In a lengthy polemic, Isabella Kaminska, former editor of the FT’s markets and finance blog Alphaville, casts herself as an “eyewitness” to the paper’s alleged ideological capture, a transformation she says she “couldn’t bear.”
Her central evidence is the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) decision to cancel hundreds of corporate subscriptions to the FT, ending a relationship that stretches back to the creation of the FTSE 100 itself. Kaminska argues that the move reflects the LSEF’s dissatisfaction with the FT’s “shifting editorial priorities.”
As a former FT journalist who resigned over what she calls “institutional politicisation,” she claims she can “understand where the LSEG is coming from.”
The charge of “wokeness” soon unravels. Kaminska argues the FT has shifted from a “candid elite forum” and the “best of the British free-thinking tradition,” to a “timid, risk-averse rag,” supposedly unwilling to publish ideas that sit outside the “prevailing party line.”
Yet she never convincingly defines what that party line is, beyond a vague sense that it is more socially liberal, more global in outlook, and less indulgent of contrarian positions that once circulated comfortably within City circles.
She attributes this shift to a changing business model. Where the FT once served a narrow, UK-centred financial readership, it now seeks a global and demographically diverse subscriber base. According to Kaminska, this required “diplomacy, not candour” in editorial lines.
Fair enough, after all, like most newspapers, the FT has seen a long-term declines in print circulation, down roughly 34 percent over the past decade. But while its print has declined, digital subscription has increased. In 2025, the FT reported the highest digital circulation year on year in 2025, up 66.9 percent to 43,043 copies.
So, it seems, whatever the FT’s business model is, it’s working. But then, you’d surely expect nothing less from one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy, an editorial approach that saw it win three headline awards at the 2023 Newspaper Awards.
But perhaps the most notable section of Kaminska’s column concerns Covid. The author argues that the FT’s “worst mistake” was failing to mount a sustained economic counterargument to lockdowns, instead aligning with the official consensus. The fact that most mainstream economists, governments, and institutions supported lockdowns at the time is seen not as important context, but as proof of conformity, and bad conformity.
Kaminska then turns to internal culture, citing memos encouraging “inclusive language”, pronoun use in sign-offs, and efforts to attract women readers. These are presented as smoking guns. Yet the leap from workplace inclusion to editorial “wokeness” is never really explained.
The FT has not “gone woke”. It has simply stopped pretending that the interests and worldviews of a narrow City audience are synonymous with objectivity.
The column didn’t slip past readers. As one posted on X:
“Hahahahahah I’m sorry Kaminska is the most ridiculous mediocrity around. The biggest delusion being the notion that she was pushed out because of her (ridiculous) views on the covid lockdown (which the UK barely did which makes it even funnier).”
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