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(Reuters) -William Lewis, the former Dow Jones chief executive and publisher of The Wall Street Journal has been named chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post, the Post said on Saturday. The Washington Post said that it is projected to end the year taking a $100 million loss. The publisher added that executives are offering buyouts across the company in an effort to reduce its head count by about 10 percent, the newsroom is expected to shrink to about 940 journalists.Lewis’s appointment comes at a time when the media industry is grappling with a sluggish advertising market, low trust in news, and developments in generative AI technology that threaten to upend how people find and consume information. Lewis is set to take on his duties from Jan. 2, 2024, replacing Patty Stonesifer, who became interim chief executive in June. The Post is owned by billionaire Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos. According to an Oct. 10 email sent by Stonesifer to staff and seen by Reuters, after conducting a review Stonesifer and senior leadership determined that the Post’s prior projections for website traffic, subscriptions and advertising growth for the past two years and into 2024 were “overly optimistic.” It’s unclear why those projections were off. Stonesifer had replaced Fred Ryan, who stepped down in August after a nine-year stint as publisher and CEO. During Ryan’s tenure, the Post boosted its digital subscriptions, won 13 Pulitzer Prizes and launched the Arc XP (NASDAQ:XP) cloud-based digital platform that serves more than 1,900 sites in 28 countries, according to the company in June. In an article covering Ryan’s departure, the Post reported that the majority of its revenue now comes from its digital business, and it has about 2.5 million digital subscribers, a shift from when Ryan was hired in September 2014 and the majority of revenue came from its print business. More

“I’m hoping to announce the new deputy governor before the meeting of the Reserve Bank on the fifth of December,” Chalmers told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Bullock, appointed RBA governor in July, has the task of leading the bank through a major internal shakeup after a review urged changes including a separate specialist board to manage monetary policy, fewer meetings and more public communication.Chalmers said shortlisted candidates for the deputy role – “some international some external, some from Australia some from overseas” – were being interviewed, adding that Bullock had been “deeply involved”.On implementing the Reserve Bank review, Chalmers said laws would be introduced at the end of November. They would include the RBA governor chairing a new governance board “at least for the first five years”.”Until we review it and make sure it’s working as we intended,” Chalmers said.The review, released in April, recommended such a board be set up to guide and oversight RBA management, in line with corporate governance best practice.Bullock, the first woman to helm the country’s central bank, took over from Philip Lowe in the top job in September. Chalmers comments come ahead of a meeting on Tuesday of the RBA, tipped to raise its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.35%, according to a Reuters poll on Friday, after keeping borrowing costs steady at its last four meetings. More

The winning bidder consortium which also includes Air France-KLM, Lind Invest ApS and the Danish state, increased its proposed investment by $25.26 million.In October, the company said Castlelake would take a stake of about 32%, while Air France-KLM’s will be around 20% and the Danish state will hold about 26%, adding that total investments in the reorganized SAS would amount to $1.16 billion. The airline’s credit agreement for $505.25 million with Castlelake will be used to refinance its loans, increase liquidity and support its exit from voluntary restructuring proceedings, according to the statement.Air France confirmed the increased restructuring aid financing. SAS’s chief executive, Anko van der Werff, said: “By entering into this investment agreement, SAS is taking the next step in its Chapter 11 process in the U.S.”The company now seeks U.S. Court approval of the investment agreement and the new debtor-in-possession financing as soon as possible in November.In August of last year, the Scandinavian airline entered into an agreement with U.S.-based investment fund Apollo Global to raise $700 million of fresh financing.Scandinavia’s biggest carrier filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in mid-2022 after years of struggling with high costs coupled with low customer demand brought on by the pandemic.Castlelake and Lind Invest did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 10.8856 Swedish crowns) More

Countries moved a step closer on Saturday to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations and the United States. The deal to create a “loss and damage” fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from wealthy nations. But in the past 11 months, governments have struggled to reach consensus on the details of the fund, such as who will pay and where the fund will be located. A special U.N. committee tasked with implementing the fund met for a fifth time in Abu Dhabi this week – following a deadlock in Egypt last month – to finalise recommendations that will be put to governments when they meet for the annual climate summit COP28 in Dubai in less than four weeks’ time. The goal is to get the fund up and running by 2024. The committee, representing a geographically diverse group of countries, resolved to recommend the World Bank serve as trustee and host of the fund – a tension point that has fuelled divisions between developed and developing nations.Housing a fund at the World Bank, whose presidents are appointed by the U.S., would give donor countries outsized influence over the fund and result in high fees for recipient countries, developing countries have argued.To get all countries on board, it was agreed the World Bank would serve as interim trustee and host of the fund for a four-year period.Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s special climate envoy, said in a post on X that Berlin “stands ready to fulfil its responsibility – we’re actively working towards contributing to the new fund and assessing options for more structural sources of financing”.Others were less optimistic.“It is a sombre day for climate justice, as rich countries turn their backs on vulnerable communities,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International. “Rich countries … have not only coerced developing nations into accepting the World Bank as the host of the Loss and Damage Fund but have also evaded their duty to lead in providing financial assistance to those communities and countries.”The committee also recommended that developed countries be urged to continue to provide support to the fund, but failed to resolve whether wealthy nations would be under strict financial obligation to do chip in.”We regret that the text does not reflect consensus concerning the need for clarity on the voluntary nature of contributions,” a U.S. State Department official told Reuters.The U.S. attempted to include a footnote clarifying that any contributions to the fund would be voluntary, but the committee chair did not allow it. The U.S. objected to that denial.Sultan al-Jaber, who will preside over the COP28 talks, said he welcomed the committee’s recommendations and that they would pave the way for an agreement at COP28.  More

Economist Emin Gurbanov, in an interview with Azernews, associated this decision with the surge in global inflation following the pandemic, viewing it as a necessary measure to manage the prevailing economic conditions. This trend of cutting interest rates is not only observed in Azerbaijan but also across European nations.Despite high inflation rates in the past, Gurbanov predicts a 3-5% drop in the upcoming years, echoing forecasts made by local and global experts from organizations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. He suggests raising interest rates as a means to stimulate the banking sector.Gurbanov remains optimistic about the future of the Azerbaijani manat, dismissing significant inflation threats. To tackle high inflation, central banks often increase interest rates to curb spending. A surge in goods due to enhanced production and imports can lead to price reductions.The Central Bank of Turkiye frequently reduces interest rates to encourage economic growth and promote borrowing and spending. This strategy led to a period of devaluation of the lira, which was eventually stabilized through measures like increasing interest rates, implementing currency controls, or seeking foreign aid.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

In addition to Hongli, other high-profile figures in the financial sector have also come under scrutiny. Liu Lian’ge, the former chairperson of the Bank of China, was arrested on bribery and illegal loan granting charges. Similarly, Li Xiaopeng, ex-leader of Everbright Group, was expelled from the Communist Party and public service for a range of misconducts. These include accepting money and gifts, policy violation, obstructing his own investigation, accepting bribes, possessing illegal stakes in non-listed companies, and misusing his power for personal gain.These investigations form part of a broader initiative by President Xi Jinping to tackle financial risks and foster finance that reflects Chinese characteristics. This drive is seen as both a catalyst for clean governance and a potential tool for political purges. Amidst China’s precarious recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, hindered by weak consumption and an ongoing housing crisis, the National Financial Work Conference emphasized the need for reinforcing financial supervision.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.War in Gaza is threatening the fragile and tourism-dependent economies of Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon and triggering concerns that the impact will spread across the Middle East. In Jordan, where tourism accounts for 10 per cent of gross domestic product, one tour operator said the war had triggered a string of cancellations: “Just like that, months and months of bookings have disappeared,” he said.In Egypt, where the government has already turned to the IMF to relieve its economic crisis, many tourism bookings in Sinai, which borders Gaza, have been cancelled. “We’re already seeing reports of cancelled bookings in neighbouring countries like Egypt,” said Farouk Soussa, Goldman Sachs’s regional economist. “We think it could cost Egypt billions in lost tourism revenues this fiscal year alone . . . Egypt doesn’t have the foreign exchange buffers to absorb that sort of hit.”Noura al-Kaabi, a United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs, on Friday said the Gulf state was working “relentlessly” for a full ceasefire and warned that the regional temperature was approaching a “boiling point”.“The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real,” she told a conference in Abu Dhabi.The steep civilian death toll from Israel’s assault on Gaza following Hamas’s incursion into southern Israel has punctured hopes for an economic dividend from a new era of better relations between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbours.“There’s a great deal of uncertainty regarding the potential impact of the war on the region’s economy,” said Soussa. “The risk of further escalation threatens to both deepen and broaden the economic fallout.”The crisis has already spread, with shelling across the Israel-Lebanon border, and drone and missile attacks on the Israeli Red Sea town of Eilat by Yemen’s Houthi militia, which is supported by Iran. Israel’s tourism-dependent neighbours Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon were struggling even before the conflict.“Uncertainty is a killer for tourist inflows,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director, at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative conference last week.  Lebanon, already in profound crisis, relies on tourism for about 40 per cent of GDP and now faces a further economic deterioration, Walid Nassar, its tourism minister, told CNN Business Arabic.  For the petrostates of the Gulf, on the other hand, higher oil prices could boost state revenues dented by Opec output cuts.“But this will likely be offset by reduced foreign direct investment inflows and tourism income,” said James Reeve, chief economist at Jadwa Investment in Riyadh. “Given that the priority is economic diversification, this is the bigger loss.”Bankers have been brutally reminded of the centrality of the Israel-Palestine conflict to the politics of the Middle East.Despite the war, top financiers flocked to last week’s FII conference, the so-called “Davos in the Desert”, trying to tap Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth funds for investment in global assets or to look at domestic opportunities, such as electric-vehicle manufacturing. But many attendees were just doomscrolling on their mobile phones, following the human tragedy in Israel and Palestine that officials fear could slow their grandiose development plans.In the post-pandemic boom town of Dubai, economic strength has been driven by an influx of Russians fleeing war and the ultra-wealthy seeking additional homes.Hoteliers say the Gaza war is responsible for some cancellations from Israeli and American tour groups, but few expect others to avoid the city because of a distant war on the shores of the Mediterranean. But a broader conflagration could deflate soaring property valuations and mar the busy autumn period. Events starring actress Jada Pinkett Smith and singer Macklemore have been postponed.   “Retailers are already worried about softer sales, especially in luxury,” said one consultant. “Some big launch events for new products are being cancelled — they are all scared of what comes next.”King Charles is scheduled to attend the opening of the UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai, along with other world leaders, from November 30. The UK government this week raised the risk of terrorist attacks in the UAE to “very likely” from “likely”. More