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    John Gapper

    Business columnist

    John Gapper is business columnist of the FT Weekend. He writes a weekly column on business and society from a consumer perspective, and other features and interviews.

    He was formerly the FT's chief business commentator and opinion & analysis editor. He has worked for the FT since 1987 in London, New York and Tokyo, and has covered banking, media and technology and employment.

    Email John Gapper @johngapper  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

    Add to myFT Digest

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    • Friday, 29 September, 2023
      Retail sector
      The price of shoplifting is getting dangerously high

      Retailers placing goods on open display is an everyday miracle that could turn into a perk of the privileged

      A police officer and a security guard stand outside of a boutique store in the SoHo neighborhood in Manhattan
    • Friday, 22 September, 2023
      Media
      Russell Brand learnt his tricks in television studios

      Broadcasting takes the recipe for abuse of power and sprinkles on celebrity

      Russell Brand on stage wearing a waistcoat and trilby hat holding a microphone to his mouth and pointing at the audience with the other hand
    • Friday, 15 September, 2023
      Retail & Consumer industry
      Birkenstock should not get too fashionable for comfort

      The German sandal maker is enjoying its popularity as it prepares for an IPO but faces pitfalls

      A still from the Barbie film, showing one of the Barbie’s holding up two shoes, one of which is a Birkenstock
    • Friday, 8 September, 2023
      Legal services
      Lawyers have lost power if Schillings is going into PR

      The combative legal firm known for enforcing celebrities’ privacy cannot control the internet

      Meghan Markle, who was represented by Schillings. It is of declining utility to place pressure on papers to block or alter stories when damaging and misinformation circulates on social media
    • Sunday, 3 September, 2023
      The Big Read
      The crisis at the British Museum

      The theft of 2,000 items risks undermining the institution’s founding purpose as a custodian of the world’s treasures

      View of two people from behind looking up at ancient Greek sculptures in the museum
    • Friday, 18 August, 2023
      Legal services
      Private equity lawyers are taught to eat what they kill

      Law firms are fracturing partnerships by raiding each other for talent in London and New York

      A man walks down the street in the City of London, with The Gherkin building in the distance
    • Friday, 28 July, 2023
      Taylor Swift
      How Taylor Swift rules the live music economy

      The singer-songwriter has taken control of her business and turned herself into a direct-to-fan brand

      Taylor Swift poses for a selfie with fans as she arrives to speak at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada in September 2022
    • Friday, 21 July, 2023
      Coutts & Co
      Dear Nigel Farage, you can keep your Coutts account

      The honest letter the UK private bank should send to the populist rightwing politician it rejected

      FT montage of Nigel Farage photo and Coutts bank logo
    • Monday, 10 July, 2023
      InterviewArts
      Gary Lineker and his Goalhanger teammates on their podcast empire

      The rapidly growing company emulates its amiable founder by encouraging hosts and guests ‘to disagree agreeably’

      Three men sit or stand in a line in a well-furnished kitchen
    • Friday, 7 July, 2023
      Mattel Inc
      Barbie is a brand that keeps changing with the times

      Greta Gerwig’s new film proves the remarkable resilience of Mattel’s original adult doll

      Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie Film
    • Saturday, 1 July, 2023
      Medical science
      Three warnings about the obesity pills coming after Wegovy

      New treatments have had remarkable results but there are reasons to be cautious

      An advertisement for Wegovy weight loss injections in the New York subway
    • Friday, 23 June, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      Advertisers should beware being too creative with AI

      The sunny optimism of marketing evangelists gathered in Cannes ignores the downsides of the technology

      A fashion fundraiser and disco on the VX Yacht in Cannes, France
    • Friday, 16 June, 2023
      EY
      Consultants will have the last laugh from the EY fiasco

      Consulting firms such as Accenture are taking over as companies become overwhelmed by technology

      A middle-aged man in a suit speaks to a camera with a winter landscape behind him
    • Thursday, 15 June, 2023
      ReviewBooks
      Material World — the six commodities that shape our lives

      Ed Conway’s lucid book explores the mines and quarries beneath the ‘ethereal’ economy of technology and services

    • Friday, 9 June, 2023
      Virtual and Augmented Reality
      Apple’s Vision Pro headset has made the metaverse feel outdated

      The technology company’s late entry into ‘mixed reality’ this week exposed the flaw in Meta’s virtual worlds

      Media photograph the new Apple Vision Pro headset on display in California this week.
    • Friday, 26 May, 2023
      Airlines
      The price of flying will keep rising, even on Ryanair

      A surge in demand for summer holiday flights presages an environmental squeeze on low-cost fares

      A Boeing 737, operated by Ryanair, at Riga International Airport in Riga, Latvia
    • Friday, 19 May, 2023
      Mergers & Acquisitions
      A global antitrust alliance battles Microsoft and Amgen

      The UK and US are emerging as the toughest enforcers of limits on technology takeovers

      Sarah Cardell
    • Friday, 12 May, 2023
      Electric vehicles
      GM should not force Apple CarPlay out of the front seat

      The carmaker wants to block the iPhone manufacturer’s software from occupying the dashboard on some new EVs

      A car’s phone-integrated touch screen
    • Friday, 5 May, 2023
      Artificial intelligence
      Writers vs AI bots is more than a Hollywood drama

      Screenwriters’ strike reflects wider job insecurity and fear of being usurped by technology

      Members of the Writers Guild of America picket outside Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles
    • Friday, 28 April, 2023
      Retail & Consumer industry
      AB InBev should defy the Bud Light culture war

      A rightwing US boycott over the beer’s use of the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney is mostly froth

      Dylan Mulvaney with cans of Bud Light, including one with her face on it
    • Wednesday, 26 April, 2023
      ReviewFT Books Essay
      BuzzFeed, Gawker and the new media rivalry that went viral

      Ben Smith charts the history of online news and the trouble chasing internet traffic

      A man and woman in an office
    • Friday, 21 April, 2023
      Media
      Rupert Murdoch pays a high price for his Fox News buccaneers

      Settling Dominion’s defamation claim for $787.5mn is the latest expensive blow to the media baron’s style of journalism

      Rupert Murdoch, chair of Fox Corporation
    • Saturday, 18 March, 2023
      Luxury goods
      Investigators sniff out the hidden fragrance industry

      Luxury perfumes are popular but the companies behind many famous brands are now in the spotlight

      A man and a woman in lab coats sniff white sticks
    • Saturday, 11 March, 2023
      HTSIHTSI spring menswear special
      Could this jacket help prevent depression?

      Frahm outerwear is tough. But the brand’s founder wants it to unbutton our vulnerabilities as well

      Nick Hussey, co-founder of Frahm
    • Friday, 10 March, 2023
      Toblerone
      Toblerone can afford to abandon the Matterhorn

      European foodmakers guard their territories fiercely but they should be exposed to competition

      Two opened bars of Toblerone chocolate sit on a table
    Previous page You are on page 1 Next page

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