‘Final Times’ turn up for FT Germany

FRANKFURT - Agence France-Presse

A worker holds a copy of the last edition of Financial Times Deutschland. EPA photo

Daily Financial Times Deutschland, launched 12 years ago as the German-language sister of the Financial Times, blacked out its front page Friday to mark its last day of publication. “Black at last,” said the ‘in mourning’-colored front page in an ironic allusion to the profits the daily - printed on the same salmon-pink paper as the iconic British newspaper - never managed to make in the 12 years of its existence.

The header was also changed, dropping letters from the word “financial” so that the newspaper’s title read as “Final Times Deutschland.” And the black humor continued through to the back page, too, where all of the newspaper’s staff were pictured bowing their heads in mock hara-kiri style penitence. In the ironic caption below, the newspaper’s bosses “apologized” to FTD’s shareholders “for burning so many of your millions”; to its advertising customers for “being so critical in our reporting about your companies”; to company spokesmen “for not following your suggestions about the wording of our articles”; and to politicians “for not believing you enough.” But the FTD’s makers insisted: “If we had to start all over again, we’d do exactly the same again.”