Nikkei's FT buy follows years of attempting to break into English news

By Christopher Cushing

July 24 (Reuters) - Nikkei's $1.3 billion purchase of theFinancial Times from Britain's Pearson PLC marks theculmination of decades of attempts by the Japanese householdname to break into mainstream English-language media.

The Japanese media group's flagship newspaper enjoys amust-read reputation for financial news in Japan and, with acirculation of more than 3 million, bills itself as the world'sbiggest selling business daily.

But it has remained unable to break out from its home shoressince starting life in 1876 as a commodities pricing reportpublished by a trading company.

The broadsheet rose to become Japan's premier economicdaily, sponsoring - as the Financial Times once did - thecountry's main stock index, the Nikkei.

The paper has struggled, however, to translate its dominancein Japanese-language business media into success amongEnglish-speaking readers in an international market.

It first published an English-language weekly paper in the1960s but a plan to produce an English daily, hatched duringJapan's economic boom years of the late 1980s and early 1990swhen it hired several English-language reporters and editors,faltered after the bubble burst.

The Nikkei Weekly newspaper continued but was rebranded,along with the corresponding website, as the Nikkei Asian Reviewin 2013, adopting a magazine format that last year had acirculation of around 12,000 copies a week, with more than 90percent sold in Asia.

The Nikkei Asian Review won three prizes at the Society ofPublishers in Asia this year, its debut appearance at theawards, including an award for reporting on the environment.

The Nikkei also had a years-long alliance with Wall StreetJournal publisher Dow Jones, which came to an end in the lastdecade.

With deep ties to corporate Japan, the Nikkei is known amonginvestors for market-moving previews of corporate earnings daysin advance of companies' official announcements.

That pattern of widespread apparent leaks to the Nikkeiattracted criticism at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe'sgovernment has been advocating greater corporate transparency toattract foreign investment.

The Nikkei's attempt to break out of a stagnating domesticmedia market, in a country with an aging and decliningpopulation, puts it among a group of Japanese companies,including insurers and financial institutions, seeking growthoverseas.

Although the yen has fallen about 40 percent againststerling over the past four years - increasing thecost of British purchases - Abe's policies, including aprogramme of unprecedented monetary easing by the Bank of Japan,has made credit cheap and encouraged companies to acquireabroad. (Additional reporting by Kevin Krolicki; Editing by AlexRichardson)

Pearson