About twenty years ago, I went to a farewell dinner for a young man who was leaving the UK to head for Korea. As a news action junkie, I was baffled. The Soviet Empire was in crisis. The Middle East in turmoil. And this guy was going to Seoul for the Financial Times?

Still, gnawing away was the suspicion that maybe he knew something the rest of us didn’t. That lingering suspicion from twenty years ago was probably right.

John Ridding is now the FT‘s CEO and here’s his take on what ‘market meltdown’ has done for the paper brand (as told to Robert MacMillan at Reuters):

“What [the crisis] is doing for our readership and audience is pretty remarkable. I think it really underlines this idea that at a time of turmoil, people really do need trusted guides, and are prepared to pay.”

Ridding’s other observations:

Do more video. People apparently like it as it’s resulting in more than a million views a month, Ridding said.

Get the paper on more formats. Press hard for online subscriptions as much as print ones. Get it on the Amazon Kindle electronic book reader. Use RSS and other tools — whatever it takes to get it out there.

Push online use as much as print. Ridding was proud to say that the FT’s dependence on print advertising has fallen to 42 percent, an important point to keep in mind as print newspaper advertising dries up. And don’t get worried about the idea that online use will “cannibalize” print sales, Ridding said. “The idea of online cannibalizing print is not just wrong, it’s the opposite. It’s proving to be a very effective marketing tool for the newspaper.”

“No one has necessarily nailed the business model in media, but we feel that we’ve got a pretty strong vision and operation.”