Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Andrew Gowers, editor of Pearson Plc's Financial Times newspaper, resigned after four years over ``strategic differences'' with the parent company and was replaced by Lionel Barber.

Gowers, 48, became editor of the financial daily in September 2001 after service in posts including foreign editor, features editor and deputy editor, London-based Pearson said in a statement today. Barber, 50, has been the newspaper's U.S. managing editor since 2002.

``Andrew Gowers is stepping down from the role of editor of the Financial Times because of strategic differences between himself and Pearson,'' the company said in the statement. It didn't say what those differences were.

The Financial Times should break even this year after advertising revenue increased 6 percent for the first nine months of the year, Pearson said this week. The newspaper has lost money in the past three years due to declines in financial advertising and investment in the FT.com Web site. Circulation in the U.K. has fallen under Gowers as the paper continued a shift to a global newspaper, including a new Asian edition, from a U.K.-oriented daily.

Circulation Decline

Total circulation of the Financial Times was 438,538 this September, of which 137,505 was in the U.K.; circulation in September 2001, the month Gowers became editor, was 481,818 including 173,829 in the U.K., according to Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd.

The newspaper in 2004 had its first revenue growth since 2000, with sales up 3 percent. Operating losses totaled 23 million pounds ($41 million) in 2002, 32 million pounds in 2003 and 9 million pounds last year, according to the Pearson Web site.

``It's clearly been a difficult four years for the FT, visible in its relative circulation problems over that time especially in the U.K.,'' said Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics. ``The other quality newspapers have been expanding their business pages so they increasingly compete with the FT.''

Still, he said, ``it is very difficult for people in serious business or in government not to read the FT every day because there are stories in there that don't appear anywhere else.''

A spokeswoman for the Financial Times, Joanna Manning-Cooper, declined to say what the differences were between Pearson and Gowers. Asked if Gowers's departure was linked to plans for imminent job cuts or a sale of the newspaper, she said she ``categorically can rule that out.''

Gowers, reached by telephone, declined to comment beyond the statement issued by Pearson.

New Editor

Barber takes on the new role with immediate effect, returning to London from the U.S. in January, Pearson said.

A 20-year veteran of the newspaper, Barber has served as Washington correspondent and U.S. editor, Brussels bureau chief and editor of the newspaper's European edition.

``Lionel is an outstanding journalist and editor with a passion for business and a global instinct,'' Pearson Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino said in the statement. ``He has the vision, talent and experience to lead the FT through its next phase of growth, in print and online.''

Scardino has consistently said in recent years that Pearson has no plans to sell the newspaper, which has become a smaller part of Pearson's revenue mix after the company expanded its education-publishing business through acquisition.

Pearson shares declined 1.5 pence to 648.5 pence in London.

Web Site

Gowers was an ``enthusiastic proponent of the Internet'' who integrated the newspaper's print and electronic editions, said London-based media consultant Graham Lovelace. ``When the FT's Web site first started it was a separate operation with a separate team, and he's put the Web operation at the heart of the internal structure of the newspaper.''

Gowers had ``managed to push the FT brand into new areas via electronic publishing at a very difficult time not just for Pearson and the FT but the entire industry, facing an advertising recession and uncertainty over the future of the newspaper model,'' Lovelace said

Bloomberg News, owned by Bloomberg LP, competes with Pearson in providing information to the financial industry.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Goldsmith in London at cgoldsmith3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 3, 2005 12:46 EST