* FT CEO says winning market share, but little visibility
* Online subscription revenue up 20 percent in February
* Does not rule out further price increases
By Georgina Prodhan
LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - The Financial Times is winning market share as the global economic crisis plays to its strengths but has little visibility on the future development of advertising spending, its chief executive told Reuters.
The publication, part of Pearson, is expanding its FT.com offering through video and new mobile outlets and plans an online version of its luxury-goods magazine, 'How To Spend It', but will likely do so without increasing its staff this year, John Ridding said.
"This story, it's our story. I've been here 22 years and all that time we've been building up our global operation," he told Reuters in an interview. "What's going on out there is absolutely in our zone."
Ridding said the FT was winning market share in advertising and readership, and online subscription revenue rose about 20 percent in February, but editorial staff numbers -- which have been increasing -- were unlikely to rise again this year.
"We've got to be pretty careful this year, as everyone has to be, because it's tough and there's not much visibility, so I wouldn't expect them to," he said.
The FT's advertising revenues rose for the first nine months of 2008 but dropped 13 percent in the fourth quarter. Parent company Pearson said early this month the decline had continued into this year.
Ridding declined to comment further on headcount plans. The FT is cutting about 5 percent of its staff and has offered shorter working weeks and extended leave.
The FT has got off relatively lightly as some other newspaper groups have already filed for bankruptcy or closed titles.
And the Washington Post Co and the New York Times Co, said on Thursday they were embarking on new cost cuts in the face of dramatic declines in advertising revenue.
The FT had a global circulation of about 435,000 in 2008. Readership in the UK was about 418,000. It also has editions published in continental Europe, Asia, the United States and the Middle East.
PRICE INCREASES
Newspapers, hit in recent years by increasing free competition on the Web and the resulting fall in circulations of their paper editions, have been agonising about how much of their content they should give away online.
The FT so far has struck a balance, allowing readers to access 10 articles per month for free before being invited to subscribe. News Corp's Wall Street Journal has a more closed approach.
FT.com attracted an average of 7.2 million unique users per month in 2008, up 27 percent year on year, and had 110,000 paying subscribers.
Digital revenues currently account for about 19 percent of total sales at the FT, which includes the newspaper, FT.com, Financial Times Business, Exec Appointments, FTChinese.com and Money-Media.
The FT has recently raised prices for online subscriptions and Ridding did not rule out further increases, either for online or for the newspaper, which now costs 1.80 pounds ($2.58) on weekdays and 2.30 pounds on weekends.
"People should be confident about charging for quality journalism, and we are," he said. "We're always looking at our pricing," he added, pointing out that the paper still cost less than a double espresso from Starbucks.
Ridding said an online version of 'How To Spend It' should be launched this year, driven by a desire by luxury brands such as Rolex to move to digital advertising, where the direct success of campaigns can be far more easily monitored.
"We've been struck by how fast that's happening," he said. "Online has been the one surprise in terms of how strongly it's performing," he added.
He said FT's online video offerings, which focus on interviews with top-level executives and decision-makers, were also attracting healthy levels of advertising and were paying for themselves many times over.
The FT also delivers its content to mobile phones and has a customised version for users of Research in Motion's BlackBerry. It plans an application for Apple's iPhone "very soon," Ridding said.
The FT is now the only unit exposed to advertising at Pearson, which also owns the world's biggest educational publishing business and Penguin Books, leading to frequent speculation the business could be sold.
Asked whether he had received any takeover approaches, Ridding said: "No. We just get on with what we're doing." He said Pearson was a supportive owner, backing the FT's global and digital expansion.
Ridding said he did not worry unduly about what competitors including the Wall Street Journal were doing. The Journal has broadened its target audience since being acquired by News Corp just over a year ago, for example by offering more sports.
"You just have to be very focused on what you're the best at, and we're the best at international business journalism, and that's where our resources go," he said.
"We're not going to depart from that, we're not going to be distracted from that." (Editing by Greg Mahlich) ($1=.6984 pounds)