According to the company, fastFT will provide “context and opinion… when 140 characters doesn’t cut it” for breaking news stories, and will include a dash of FT-style personality. The dispatches, which are between 100 and 250 words, will appear on the right side of the FT homepage and on a separate fastFT website. On the iPad, it looks like this:

The outfit will be staffed by eight journalists, who are based in New York, London and Hong Kong and tasked with cranking out up to three items per hour. I spoke with chief correspondent, Megan Murphy, who said fastFT is meant to create more portals and routes for readers to consume the publication’s content.

“Nothing drives me more crazy than when I hear FT readers have gone elsewhere for breaking financial news,” she said, explaining that the dispatches will go up more quickly than a typical news story but provide more context than Twitter. She added that fastFT is aimed not at traders, but as a companion mobile news source for financial professionals.

The launch comes at a time when the market for business news, which is the FT’s bread and butter, is becoming evermore crowded. In addition to long-time rival, the Wall Street Journal, the site must also compete with host of newcomers like the Atlantic’s Quartz and even BuzzFeed. Meanwhile, start-ups like Circa and Summly (recently bought by Yahoo) are tinkering with ways to deliver short summaries of news stories to mobile devices.

As with other FT fare, the bite-sized stories are included for subscribers; for visitors, opening the fastFT page will count against the monthly article cap though opening individual stories will not.

On Wednesday, the FT rolled out a new version of its iPad offering that lets readers toggle between a live version of the website and a static view that resembles the morning newspaper. The new “app” also allows readers to clip articles to read later and features a personalized reading history and financial portfolio.

“It’s a much superior second-generation web app based on the latest HMTL5 implementation out there,” said FT.com’s Managing Director, Rob Grimshaw, in a phone interview. He added that it’s only on the iPad for now, but will soon be available on other devices like the iPhone, the Chromebook and Android devices.

While the new version of the web app is nice enough aesthetically (you can see screenshots at right), its real significance remains on a symbolic level. In deciding to bolt Apple altogether last year, the FT took up a vanguard position in the web vs. app debate – standing for the position that improvements in HTML5 means native apps have become unnecessary. Other premium publishers, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have so far resisted the FT’s “all-in on web” approach and continue to design apps specifically for Apple and Android devices, and sell them through app stores. (We’ll be digging into the web vs. app debate with three influential publishers at paidContent Live later this month.)

The FT’s decision to quit the app stores meant it would no longer have to fork out a 30% commission to the likes of Apple, but also raised a risk that readers would fail to find the publisher on smartphones and tablets. Grimshaw says this”discoverability” concern is not an issue for major brands, and that the FT’s tablet traffic has actually risen 70% since leaving iTunes.

“If you are a big brand, why not use that? We don’t need Apple or anyone else to say what the FT is,” said Grimshaw.

He did acknowledge that collecting payments from mobile devices are still a challenge for publishers; unlike iTunes, which already has a user’s credit card on file, the web doesn’t offer a quick and easy way for people to pay. Grimshaw added, though, that a solution is coming soon.

“Players like Amazon are opening their payment plan more,” he said. “There’s Amazon, PayPal and one or two others. It’s problem that’s about to get solved.”

For now, Grimshaw says that 15-20 percent of new digital subscriptions are coming via a mobile device and that he expects that number to rise. Like its sister publication, The Economist, the FT has unbundled digital access from its print subscriptions and is offering a variety of price points: a premium online subscription is $8.49 a week while a standard one is $6.25 (Grimshaw says a third of subscribers buy premium); a print and digital subscription is $11.49 while print-only is $7.25.

The FT has become something of a poster child for the idea that news that a bright future in the digital era. It recently announced that it had “crossed over” with its audience, amassing more digital subscribers than print ones. But, as we’ve noted before, the Financial Times‘ distinct audience and product make it more of an outlier than a model that lots of other news publications can replicate.

Now Pearson (NYSE: PSO) forecasts: “Revenues from digital and services businesses (are) expected to exceed revenues from traditional publishing businesses in 2012.”

Pearson-owned Penguin on Monday reported it has sold 50 million apps and e-book since 2008. E-books now make up 12 percent of its global (£125.4 ($198.3) million) and a fifth of its U.S. sales. “We expect this percentage to increase significantly again in 2012,” the publisher said.

But, with the closure of 750 Borders (U.S.) and REDGroup (Australia and New Zealand) stores contributing to falling print book sales, Penguin revenue fell marginally to £1.04 ($1.65) billion. Penguin says it wants to leverage some of Pearson’s education channels to deliver its digital wares.

Pearson, which is mostly an education services company, says students using its digital learning programmes increased by 23 percent through 2011 to 43 million, including a 22 percent hike in MyLab higher education service sign-ups in north America taking it to nine million users.

FT added 29 percent more digital subscriptions through 2011, taking it to 267,000. In the U.S., the digital subscriber base has already surpassed print FT subscribers (read more).

Release | Slides

It attracted 17,000 new digital subscribers in the final three months of 2011, parent Pearson (NYSE: PSO) reported on Monday (total now 267,000). That is 6.8 percent more subscribers than it had in November – the smallest quarterly growth rate it has posted since iPad’s launch.

The FT’s iPad and iPhone app came off iTunes Store in August 2011 after FT Group and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) failed to reach agreement over Apple’s wish to take 30 percent of in-app subscription payments and to keep the majority of data about subscribers.

Two thousand of the FT’s new 2011 subs were corporate licenses. In the U.S., print circulation was overtaken by these digital subscribers for the first time.

In the wake of the 2009 ad downturn, the publisher is happy to be attracting more paying readers to offset what it still sees as a “weak and volatile” advertising market. “Growth in online advertising and the luxury category was offset by weakness in corporate advertising,” it says.

Advertising is now the minority of FT revenue, with content sales 58 percent. And digital is now 47 percent of revenue.

Pearson said FT Group 2011 operating profit rose 27 percent to £76 million on six percent higher revenue of £427 million.

Meanwhile, The Economist, of which Pearson owns 50 percent, saw a 100,000 digital circulation, pushing weekly cross-format circulation up by one percent. See Pearson full earnings.

Before I continue, a health warning: ADGA is a metric devised by the FT’s own research department in 2009. They are independently verified by PricewaterhouseCoopers rather than the industry’s main auditor, ABC.

The ADGA statistics reveal that the number of people accessing the FT’s online site every day has surpassed 900,000, showing a 36% year-on-year increase.

The paper has also seen a sharp rise in mobile users, with increases of 66% on smart phones and 71% on tablets over the last six months.

The number of people who read FT content on two or more platforms every day has risen to over 300,000, or 14% of the total audience.

To achieve its results, ADGA uses a combination of sources including syndicated national and regional readership surveys, unique user and browser data, FT proprietary research based on large samples of the reader base as well as ABC (NYSE: DIS) circulation figures.

The number is divided into channels as well as regions. Duplicated consumption is removed to produce one global net audience figure.

Anita Hague, the FT’s global research director, said: “FT readers are comfortably moving between platforms to access our content… this means that advertisers who run a cross-channel campaign are maximising their reach.”

Source: FT

This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.

– Future Publishing: News International senior digital trader Nick King is becoming the magazine publisher’s new digital commercial director, heading up digital sales and ad ops teams across Future’s Bath and London hubs from February 6.

– Financial Times: FT.com managing director Rob Grimshaw has relocated from London to run the publisher’s digital operation from New York.

– Moo.com: The Silicon Roundabout-based business card printer is adding Dan Rubin as its new global creative director.

– O2 Media: The mobile telco is adding IPC Media audience insights head Andy Marrs as market insights manager, to better understand future trends by working with analysts and industry bodies.

– Emap: The business publisher’s Insight division – giving analysis and forecasting in retail, fashion, cars, built environment, media and politics – is adding Thomas Reuters’ Stephen Wilson as CEO.

– BBC: The corporation’s cross-platform productions head Martin Trickey is leaving to be production house TwoFour’s digital creative director, NMA reports.

In its January trading update, the group says it made £2 billion ($3 billion) in digital revenues and around £600 million ($1 billion) from emerging markets in 2011.

To put that in context, Pearson’s 2010 digital revenue was £1.6 billion, 29 percent of the total, according to its annual report.

Since then, constituents Penguin and The Financial Times have seen strong online and e-book growth, but Pearson has also been wheeling out new online services for its core education businesses.

“Across Pearson, we are benefiting from recent portfolio changes, using the proceeds from disposals to invest in fast-growing businesses in developing economies and digital services,” the company says in today’s statement.

Pearson, run by CEO Marjorie Scardino, sold its 50 percent stake in FTSE International for £450 million in December – money it says will “provide additional headroom for further bolt-on acquisitions” in the target areas of digital and emerging markets.

Profitability guidance was not given in today’s update.

Every newspaper, magazine or website is working on a paywall of sorts and closely monitoring what everyone else is doing. In almost every news company, execs are morosely watching advertising projections and finding numbers that are not exactly encouraging. For digital media, there is no way around this year’s weak outlook: the bad economic climate only adds to the downward price pressure exerted by the ever growing inventory of web and mobile pages. In a best-case scenario, volumes and prices will remain flat. On the print circulation side, Western newspapers are likely to witness a continuing readership erosion at a rate of several percentage points.

But here is the interesting point: The strongest players don’t just bow to the inevitable, they accelerate their transition to digital. This week, I was struck by the fact two such leaders made the same move: The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and the Financial Times both announced serious price hike for their newsstand price (respectively 25 percent and 13.6 percent) :

– The NYT moves from $2.00 (€1.57) to $2.50 (€1.96) from Monday to Saturday, with no change for the Sunday edition still priced at $5 (€3.92) in New York, and $6 (€4.72) elsewhere.

– The FT goes from £2.20 ($3.39 or €2.66) to £2.50 ($3.85 or €3.03) on weekdays, as the weekend edition moves from £2.80 ($4.32 or €3.39 ) to £3 ($4.62 or €3.63).

Those numbers are really meaningful: a 10 percent increase every two years or so can be seen as an inflation adjustment – a generous one considering the inflation rate in those countries to be about 2.5 percent-3.5 percent. At 25 percent increase is a strategic decision aimed at accelerating the switch to digital. (The paper version of the FT now costs 25 percent more than it did last October).

Interestingly enough, for a New York Times addict, reading the paper online with the cheapest package ($15 a month), is now 40 percent to 50 percent cheaper that the home-delivered version and 70 percent cheaper than buying the paper each day at a newsstand. As for the FT, the standard digital version is now 21 percent cheaper than the print subscription and 68 percent less than the newsstand price.

Both are working hard at converting readers to the digital paid-for model. The FT is heading full steam into digital, furiously data-mining its 4 million subscribers base to convert them into paid-for subscribers (250,000 according to the most recent count). The FT’s tactics is simple: readers are relentlessly pushed toward the paywall thanks to a diminishing number of stories available for free: from 30 free articles per month in 2007 it is now down to 8 articles; the other bold move is making registration mandatory in order to access even a single story.

Last year, the New York Times came up with a less readable strategy: the adjustable paywall. And it seems to work. The NYT has been able to collect 324,000 paid-for digital subscribers in nine months. Considering the NYT has about four times less non-paying digital registered users than the FT (therefore a lesser conversion potential), this is not bad.

The Times builds its paid-for strategy on three key factors:

1 / The uniqueness of its content. Let’s put it this way: The New York Times has no equivalent in the world when it comes to great journalism, period. This valued content helped collect 34 million uniques visitors a month in its domestic market, and 47 million worldwide. More than any other newspapers in the world, the NYT has a huge base of loyal users. If it manages to convert only 5 percent of its global audience, say 2.4 million people, and extracts an ARPU (combined subscription and advertising) of $150 per year, it will gross €360 million, which largely covers the cost of its newsroom ($200 million a year, by far the largest in the world).

2 / The managed porosity of its paywall. One key requirement in building the digital subscription system for the Times was keeping as many of its readers as possible. There are two main reasons for this: high audience numbers are critical for advertising revenue; and the visibility factor is crucial for a news brand. This led to a system that targets the heaviest users. But even those can easily game the system (by using several browsers on several devices, I never bump into the paywall, with no particular desire to avoid it). Similarly, prices vary from $15 to $35… for exactly the same content – this is typical of a price structure aimed at audiences with flexible purchasing powers (it is widely established that richer people tend to opt for the most expensive package, regardless of its true value).

3 / Getting in bed with Apple. Since the early iPad days, The New York Times has been working closely with Apple for applications, subscriptions, and the nascent Newsstand. Again: thanks to its unique brand and the trust it carries, the NYT experiences no trouble collecting the precious customer data the app’s default settings fail to provide. In doing so, the Times benefited from Apple’s huge promotional vortex. The Apple system is highly beneficial when it comes to building an audience. But it does so at the expense of the essential customer relationship, and at a huge cost of 30 percent when the goal should rather be in the 10 percent range.

That was the Financial Times’ rationale for breaking the Apple leash. Last week, the FT went even further: it acquired the software firm Assanka, well-known for the development of the FT.com’s remarkable web-app that insured its crucial independence from Apple (story in PaidContent). In itself, the move demonstrates the FT’s commitment to mobile products: HTML5 development remain difficult and the FT decided it was critical to integrate Assanka’s development tools.

Of these three factors, the uniqueness of content remains the most potent one. With the inflation of aggregators and of social reading habits, the natural replication of information has turned into an overwhelming flood. Then, the production of specific content – and its protection – becomes a key element in building value. As for price structures, there is no magic formula. Usually, the simpler the better (as Apple demonstrated) – especially for businesses that start from scratch. But, with pre-existing and different audience segments such as an individual and corporate users, pricing decisions become more complicated and a diversified price list can prevent cannibalization. As for the Apple vs. independent app issue, my personal take is that sleeping with Apple is a quick short-term win, an easier strategy. But, in the long run, the independent way (which, after all, is an article of faith for Apple itself) will yield better results.

-frederic.filloux@mondaynote.com

This article originally appeared in The Guardian.

Assanka launched the HTML5 web app with the paper’s in-house product team in June 2011, declaring “the craze for native apps is a short one and we are already seeing it on the wane”.

Previous Assanka clients include Twickenham’s Town Centre Management Board and the Chartered Institute for Public Relations. An acquisition price is not disclosed.

CEO’s staff memo:

“Dear all,

“I’m very pleased to announce that the Financial Times has acquired Assanka, the London-based web and application developer.

“This acquisition supports our strategy to deliver our world class journalism anywhere, anytime on any device, delivering new digital products and services that engage our busy readers.

“Assanka has played an important part in the FT’s recent digital and mobile successes, including the launch of the FT Web App which has now achieved over 1m users and which has helped drive digital subscriptions to beyond 250,000. Assanka has also contributed towards our recently launched Android App and supported our blog platforms, including FT Alphaville.

“This is a unique opportunity to bring talented and very creative software engineers with proven skills in emerging web technologies into our team. It will further boost our momentum in digital journalism, help us improve our development processes and allow us to maintain our edge in this strategically important area.

“Assanka will become a part of the FT Technology Group while retaining its independence and the culture that has made them so successful to date. They will also help develop mobile and app expertise across Pearson, acting as a centre of innovation for technologies of increasing relevance and importance across the overall business.

“This is an exciting time for the FT and we will need all of our technology teams to continue to innovate and deliver the cutting edge digital products and services needed to support our continued success as a digital publisher.

“Best wishes,

“John”

The FT launched a native iOS web app alongside iPad’s April 2010 launch, processing customer transactions independently inside the app. The new device has proved a revelation, causing customers for the publisher’s cross-platform access to accelerate from previous years.

But the paper pulled its iPad and iPhone apps out of iTunes Store in August 2011 after failing to win concessions from Apple’s new stipulation that all in-app payments must go through iTunes Store.

Since then, new FT subscriptions have nevertheless continued at a consistent rate. Mobile devices account for 20 percent of all page views and 15 percent of new subscriptions.

Bullish, the FT – under online MD Rob Grimshaw and mobile product lead Steve Pinches – has decided to simplify product development in a multi-device world by using the web app as the basis for all its apps across platforms. But few publishing peers have chosen to eschew iTunes in this way.

For the FT’s new Android app, the newspaper is taking a page from its work creating an HTML5-based web app optimized for Apple’s iOS and has now done the same for Google’s mobile platform. But here, the FT has added in some native code to make the most of the Android devices’ form factor, user interface and other features, a spokesperson tells paidContent.

But whereas the FT dramatically pulled its native app from the iTunes App Store out of protest over Apple’s terms, this time around the app will be available through the official channel, in this case the Android Market, as well as via the company’s own app portal.

Apart from smoother navigation and search, the app features some of the bells and whistles that are becoming increasingly popular among newspaper and magazine apps: it allows for offline access and automatically gives a user content updates, set to a specific time if preferred. Also, subscriptions to the Android app are integrated with subscriptions across all mediums. The app also features a more comprehensive catalog of source material, including blogs and graphics from the newspaper and online editions.

In the case of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), the FT had disagreed with Apple’s terms, which included not only a 30 percent commission with the transaction run through iTunes, but also the ability to hold on to customer subscription and usage information that the FT wanted for itself. That led the FT to publish its iOS app as a web app that users could access through a device’s browser.

It seems that with Android and Google (NSDQ: GOOG), however, the FT was able to arrange a deal to hold on to the data and subscription cuts for itself — or at least in a way that has satisfied the publisher.

“It’s fully integrated into the business model and subscriptions are sold directly through the app, not through Google’s Checkout,” the spokesperson noted to us in an email. While opting out of the App Store store also means that the FT does not get to be part of the new Newsstand feature in iOS 5, no such issue exists with Android, which doesn’t yet offer a targeted newsstand for publications.

This is not the FT’s first foray into Android apps: in October 2010, the company inked an exclusive deal with Samsung to provide an app bundled on its first Galaxy Tab. No such exclusivity has been worked into the deal this time — although in the FT’s own promotional shots for the app, it focuses only on Samsung devices.

In all, the FT says the app runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above for phones and 3.1 (Gingerbread) and above for tablets. It says that compatibility with Ice Cream Sandwich is coming soon.

The FT is banking a lot on mobile users for its growth. It says that mobile, above even online, is now the biggest channel for digital subscriptions, driving 15 percent of the growth in new subscriptions, and an impressive 20 percent of traffic to FT.com.

The app is free to download but then requires payment for full use. Registered users get the first eight stories in a month free, but then need to pay to get more — either £4.49 or £6.49 ($7-10), depending on which features you want to have. But the FT is also promoting ads on the new app: the launch partner is Samsung, specifically around the Galaxy Note.