For Wharton students and faculty who like to keep themselves updated on business-related news — whether that includes keeping up with the stock market or reading up on the latest technology — there is now a free way to do that.
The Wharton School recently announced that current faculty, students and staff will have free access to online subscriptions to the Financial Times, a British paper whose content focuses on business and the global economy.
The agreement was created when several faculty members requested that the paper be available to them and their students.
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“It’s really about empowering our students with knowledge,” Wharton Chief Information Officer Dan Alig said. “In many of the courses in Wharton, case examples are very important for learning. This gives the opportunity for students to study current cases.”
Since the announcement was made on Sept. 13, over 2,000 users have registered on the Financial Times website, including faculty members, undergraduate students, MBAs, executive MBAs and doctorate students in Wharton.
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The new agreement follows a previous agreement between Wharton and the Financial Times, which allowed Wharton to distribute paper copies of the newspaper within Huntsman Hall. Under the new agreement, no more physical copies are distributed.
“The Financial Times is moving in that direction,” Wharton Chief of Staff Marcia Longworth said of the decision to move subscriptions online.
This is currently the only agreement Wharton has with a news organization. However, Alig said that they are reaching out to others as well.
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Wharton marketing assistant professor Pinar Yildirim said that the agreement helps out the paper financially.
“They are reducing the uncertainty in demand by selling in large [quantities] and in advance,” Yildirm said in an email, though she added that she is unsure of the benefits of newspapers moving online since the “newspaper market is still shrinking.”
According to Alig, the agreement is “mutually beneficial” because the Financial Times will be gaining lifelong readers.
“[The Financial Times] is one of the top financial publications in the world and people are interested in reading it,” Longworth said.
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