FINANCIAL TIMES journalists have been asked if they would consider early retirement or voluntary redundancy, in a sign that the loss-making newspaper is preparing deeper cuts.

In a memo to editorial staff, Andrew Gowers, the Editor, said that he wanted to gauge interest in an “early retirement or voluntary severance” scheme that may become available early next year.

Although the memo says that such a scheme may not be introduced, he added that at this stage “it would be helpful for us to have an idea of demand”. No figure was put on the number of redundancies that could be sought. The FT employs about 500 journalists and other editorial staff. Last year the paper lost £32 million as a slump in financial advertising hit overall revenues — reflecting the weakness in capital markets. Since markets peaked in 2000, the FT’s advertising income has fallen by 60 per cent.

In the past two years, actions taken by the FT’s parent, Pearson, has reduced costs by £20 million a year, although the cuts have largely spared editorial staff. As a result, the newspaper is expected to return to break-even in the fourth quarter of this year, according to a trading statement issued earlier this month.

Despite the profits improvement, the state of the financial advertising market remains uncertain — in Pearson’s words “erratic from week to week”. In the fourth quarter the FT’s advertising revenues improved by 2 per cent year on year, suggesting that future improvements in profits will be modest for the time being. City analysts are expecting the FT to break even during next year on current projections.

Pearson, however, was dismissive of worries about the paper’s future profitability. A company spokeswoman said: “Losses at the FT will be down by £20 million this year, as we said. Don’t lose sight of that.”

There has not been a round of editorial redundancies at the FT since 2001 when 20 long-serving staff left in a voluntary scheme. If a scheme went ahead on this occasion, however, it is unlikely that a minimum age limit would set, meaning that taking payments to leave would be open to all journalistic staff.

Executives at the FT are also reviewing the future of the newspaper’s Creative Business media supplement, a move that would save £400,000 a year, although in isolation such a move would only have a limited impact on overall earnings.

Financial newspapers, of which the FT is the flagship title, is one of three elements in the Pearson portfolio. The rest of the group is made of the Penguin publishing business, which is battling to deal with distribution problems in the UK, and an education publishing arm, which is the largest part of the group.

Goldman Sachs is expecting Pearson to produce pre-tax profits of £413 million this year, on revenues of £3.9 billion.

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