The Long Profile: Nathalie Kilby, Financial Times

“I think anybody wanting to get into journalism needs to scrap the idea of it making them rich,” says Nathalie Kilby, Commissioning Editor in Project Publishing at the Financial Times. “Only the very famous journalists get rich,” she explains, shortly after offering me a cup of herbal tea from her vast collection. Kilby, 49, has been a journalist for 26 years and at the Financial Times for 16 of them. Journalism was her dream job as she was highly motivated by politics and current affairs. “I grew up in an era where I felt there was a lot of injustice,” she says. “I saw journalists correcting that and had high hopes that I could contribute.”

After graduating from UCL with a history and politics degree, Kilby worked her way up, starting in trade journalism. “My first job was editorial assistant at Foxton’s magazine, the estate agents... I started writing news articles on property features, then a property trade magazine, then a marketing trade magazine which competed with national titles, so that’s how I got into national journalism.” Her only regret is not getting in sooner. “I wish I had believed in myself more and just applied rather than thinking I wasn’t good enough,” Kilby explains, “Then potentially my journalistic career would’ve been what I’d dreamt of, being more of an investigative journalist, breaking big scoops that might be life or world changing, or have an effect on global or national affairs.”

When interviewed for her job at the Financial Times, Kilby stood out for her cheekiness, “A few questions I felt were too simple and I told them straight up that it was rude to ask me such a simple question.” She also thinks she was “forthright and straightforward” in her answers which in turn helped her prove that she was the perfect candidate for the job. Additionally, having grown up on a council estate, she believes, “I was employed because I was a working-class candidate,” (i.e. to increase diversity). “I was also shocked at how white the newsroom was. There were literally two black people there.” Kilby emphasises that “there has been a concerted effort” at the FT to increase diversity, but explains that even today, most of her colleagues were privately educated and went to Oxbridge. Kilby is one of few people at editor level from a working-class background.

The pandemic back in 2020 made it tough for journalists, “It was isolating; in journalism you bounce ideas off each other and we didn’t have that. It was especially hard for younger journalists, as you learn a lot from your colleagues; being sat at home alone made it difficult.” Journalists at the Financial Times are hybrid workers, so go into the newsroom three or four days a week and work one or two days at home. Kilby explains that the salary is quite average, “A lot of other places pay better than us, but a lot pay worse as well, so we’re in the middle.” Despite the newspaper’s traditionally centre-right political stance, she says that now “it is more centre than ever” and predicts, “It’s probably going to back a Labour government – I guess we don’t have much choice.”

“I got the news out there before everybody else,” Kilby describes how being the first journalist to report a scoop about a top minister in Gordon Brown’s government was her proudest moment. She has also met “some brilliant people” including Bill Gates, to whom she asked a question, although she now can’t remember what it was.

“You are only as good as your last story,” Kilby warns, and being a journalist can be “soul destroying.” However she says that whenever she wants to give up, “I tell myself that I am very lucky, it’s a job people would dream to do, and I move on.” Kilby is proud to work for the Financial Times, “If I feel there have been stories we’ve not run that we should have, sometimes it can clash with my values, but very rarely. I would never work for Murdoch-owned or the Daily Mail – that's just personal choice.” She would like to work for the New York Times because “it covers interesting subjects and is well-respected globally.”

Kilby’s mantra is “Believe in yourself.” Her advice for younger journalists is to try to get a placement or internship because you’re “pretty much guaranteed a job.” She says work experience is vital and to always be prepared to adapt and learn. “I’d never written such in-depth financial analysis before this job, so I had to learn quickly; the learning doesn’t stop when you leave education.”