The decision by the Financial Times to provide free subscriptions via Facebook garnered favorable press in the United Kingdom, which praised the publisher's efforts to use social networks to increase its future reader base. Hitsearch (http://www.hitsearchlimited.com/news/999406/ ) and The Press Gazette (http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=40496&c=1) provide examples two such articles.

Key to the effort is the ability to segment users via the application, and to take advantage of Facebook's viral marketing elements, which allow students on Facebook to forward the application to their qualifying friends. This application is part of our ongoing efforts to reach a new generation of readers who we hope will become life-long fans of the FT, Says Ien Cheng, managing editor of FT.com, It’s a great way for an old brand to promote itself to a new audience. Clearly, there’s a viral element here.”

Within the first week of launch (and before being listed on the Facebook directory), the application has already been forwarded virally by Facebook users to over 1,000 of their friends. The launch is the first of several Web 2.0 marketing efforts in development by Juxta Digital for the Financial Times.