City AM claims to have more readers in the City than FT

Free London newspaper City AM, which launched three months ago, claims it has more readers than the Financial Times within the City and Canary Wharf.

Research carried out by NOP and based on a sample of more than 500 people shows that 16 per cent of workers in these areas read City AM, whereas only 12 per cent read the FT.

Separate research carried out by City AM itself involved 800 readers, who signed up online to give their comments. According to chief executive Jens Torpe, formerly an executive at Metro International, more than 60 per cent of those readers claimed they do not read The Times, The Daily Telegraph or the FT. Torpe says this makes City AM an attractive proposition to advertisers.

Torpe says: “The average age of our readers is 37 so they are younger than those who read the FT. For our readers, accessibility is the key factor; people like the short, condensed news stories in our 24 pages that provide a good overview of all the latest in business news.”

Torpe says young readers with less time on their hands prefer to absorb shorter stories that summarise the business news, rather than read the longer stories in the FT and other newspapers which they find “more challenging”.

He adds: “They get their brief overview from City AM, much as commuters do with Metro, and then use the internet to follow up stories of interest throughout the day.”