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Financial Times via SFU: the depth & breadth you need to understand our changing world

Published by Mark Bodnar

A bit of good news in these difficult budgetary times: SFU's subscription to the Financial Times has been renewed. 

Logo of the Financial Times

Funded in partnership with the Beedie School of Business, our direct subscription to the Financial Times gives us full access to the FT's visual & data journalismvideos, podcasts, and much more. 

I appreciate the FT's news articles, but for me the value of our subscription is in the deeper FT content: the analysis of major world issues and availability of multiple perspectives on complex topics. I'll cover some highlights of the many types of FT content below, but first a couple notes about feedback and access...

 Feedback

Our renewed FT subscription goes to next summer (June 2025). In the longer run, we'd like to switch to an ongoing subscription that will be predictably available for use in courses each semester, but such a move requires both more budgetary certainty (again, these are difficult times) and more feedback. Please help us make such decisions by sharing how you use the Financial Times: 

  • Do you use the FT regularly?
  • Do you assign articles from it in classes, or (if you are a student) have you been asked to read FT articles as part of a class?
  • What do you find in the FT that you can't easily get from other information sources?

 Access

simple line drawing of a keyThe FT has an unusual method of confirming you are a current SFU instructor, student, or staff member. Theoretically, their approach should be smoother than other authentication methods, but it does seem to trip people up at times, likely because it's not the norm here at SFU. 

The first time you access the Financial Times (FT), you'll need to sign in at the Financial Times site using your SFU email address so they can connect you with our institutional subscription. They should recognise that your email address is with SFU and briefly bounce you over to SFU for authentication before returning you to their site where you will have full access to their content

After your account has been created, visit FT.com directly to read articles and reports. You will occasionally need to re-enter your SFU email address to log back into your FT account. Their system will briefly redirect you back to the SFU site each time for SSO (single sign on) access using your SFU ID (screen capture).

If you need help creating your account, email: customer.support@ft.com

 Content

Small, square logo of the Financial TimesThe Financial Times offers far more than just typical news articles. Explore broadly to discover the many other types and formats of information it provides. For instance... 

Data Points: Dig into the most pressing issues of the day — everything from the economy to climate change, social issues and healthcare — using statistics and graphics. Sample: How our sense of economic reality is being distorted

The Big Read: Longform stories that explore and explain key themes in world news, science and business. Sample: China’s plan to sell cheap EVs to the rest of the world

Special Reports: In-depth FT coverage of countries around the world, as well as industries from tech to luxury, and themes ranging from workplace health to entrepreneurship. They appear in a variety of formats, from magazines and broadsheets, to video and interactive stories. Samples: Future of Work (series) and Hydrogen (as an energy source)

News In-Depth: In-depth reporting from FT correspondents around the world. Sample: Apple Intelligence: iPhone maker takes control with its own AI vision

Data on Markets, Equities, Commodities, Currencies, Funds, and more Sourced largely from Refinitiv (publishers of our Eikon Database), this feature provides global market data integrated with FT's news about what is driving that data. The data isn't downloadable in the way that most academic researchers might like, but we have other resources with that sort of functionality. 

Newsletters: In a world of constant change and overwhelming information, you need a service that proactively selects and sends you the news most relevant to your needs. FT offers several newsletters (alerts) to help you efficiently keep on top of the news, even news anticipated in the near future, as well as alerts focused on specific trends & industries. My personal favourites among FT's many newsletters are: 

  • The Week Ahead: Start every week on the front foot with a preview of what’s on the agenda.
  • Long Story Short: The biggest stories and best reads in one smart email — handpicked by a different FT journalist every Friday.
  • International morning headlines: Start your day with a quick summary of the world news that matters.
  • The Climate Graphic: Explained: Understanding the most important climate data of the week
  • One Must-Read: Remarkable journalism you won’t want to miss
  • Moral Money: Your trusted guide to the fast-expanding world of ESG, Impact Investing, Socially Responsible Business and Corporate Purpose.

Videos: Sometimes a short video can be the best way to learn about a complex topic, so it's wonderful that FT provides hundreds of streaming videos, including...

Simple drawing of an instructor in front of a pie chartInstructors

FT's Resources for Education page has suggestions for students, faculty, and administrators on how to get the most out of our institutional subscription.

And if you like using news sources in your classes, consider also using some of the many other major news publications available through your SFU Library.

If you have any questions about the Financial Times, or about any other news resource, just email me! 

-- Mark
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Mark Bodnar
Economics & Business Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca

P.S.: We also have the Financial Times Historical Archive with page images of all issues from 1888 to 2010. It's definitely not a "current events" source, but the deep history can be incredibly valuable for some types of academic research!

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