Ahead of its introduction of direct subscription for corporate customers in April 2008, The Financial Times (FT) has announced a bridging agreement to smooth the transition for those customers locked into deals with third-party news aggregation providers such as LexisNexis and Factiva.

The offer will allow qualifying customers of specific third-party platforms to subscribe to an FT content licence which will exempt them from paying fees to the FT until the renewal of their third-party contract or January 2009, whichever comes first.

Caspar de Bono, managing director of business to business at the newspaper, said the offer was “a way of helping customers move from one licensing model to another”.

From April 2008, corporate customers will have to buy FT content directly from the newspaper rather than as part of a bundle from an aggregator. The purpose of the move is to enable the FT to form closer relationships with its customers.

“By having a direct relationship with the customer, we’re better able to understand what it is they want, what it is that we do well, and where it is that we can improve,” said de Bono.

He added that the change would benefit customers.

“A corporate customer may be buying FT content many times over because they’re buying it through different providers, but what we’re offering from April is a content licence,” de Bono explained. “Once you’ve bought your content once, that’s it ­ you don’t have to keep buying it from different people.”

Although corporate customers will now deal directly with the FT, the newspaper has entered into an agreement that will let FT customers who are also LexisNexis subscribers see FT content on LexisNexis. It is hoping to strike similar deals with other third-party providers.

The new licence for corporate customers will cost £199 per seat, with discounts for volume. So far, 50 corporate customers have signed up for the deal, according to de Bono.