The Financial Times is replacing its female managing news editor Gillian Tett with male editor Peter Spiegel following company changes to gender quotas in published articles.
Tett finds herself in a new position after she reportedly criticized the company’s newly implemented policy directing writers to cite more women in their articles. She will now look over editorial submissions.
The change comes after the company investigated and found that 21 percent of people quoted in its published articles were women, prompting the news organization to develop a system alerting editors if a story does not meet a certain threshold of female quotes, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
The company also conducted an experiment aimed at ensuring more pictures of women would be featured in FT articles. “Women are more likely than men to click through on a picture of a woman and less likely than men to click through on a picture containing only men,” according to FT, the Guardian reported.
It is not clear whether Tett’s new role is a result of her criticism of the company’s gender-quota initiative.
PARIS, FRANCE – MAR 23, 2017: Cover of International press Financial Times newspaper at French press kiosk newsstand featuring headlines following the terrorist incident in London Westminster Bridge. Shutterstock/Hadrian
“Desks that use quotes from a high proportion of women also feature more women in their pictures, and their articles are well read by women,” deputy editor Roula Khalaf wrote in an internal email to FT staff, according to The Guardian. (RELATED: Stem-ming College Gender Quotas)
FT increased its number of female editorial writers by 10 percent between March and August.
“The opinion desk is tracking not only the gender of contributors, but also their ethnicity and geographical location, as part of an effort to commission more female voices, more minority voices in western countries and more local voices elsewhere,” Khalaf said.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM- 1 APRIL 2015: A newspaper rack holding several international newspapers, such as The International New York Times, USA Today, Irish Times, Londra Sera and Corriere Della Sera. Shutterstock/Lawrey
Peter Spiegel will take over as the new managing editor in early 2019, according to The Guardian.
The Financial Times did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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