According to an article on Contently, the newspaper is hoping to “solve some of the viewability problems that plague the advertising industry, and more properly value the Financial Times’ deeply engaged audience”.

The metric is to be developed over the summer, with the trials focusing on exploring how to find and deliver inventory efficiently, and how to prove the efficacy of the system. The newspaper is apparently working alongside a research agency to run controlled tests to determine how much time gives the best “bang for the buck for the brand over the old pageview metric”.

“We think there’s real logic in what we’re doing here,” said Jon Slade, commercial director of digital advertising at the Financial Times.

“Financial Times readers are spending six times more time with the site than on other business news sites. We can say, ‘We have 30,000 hours of CEO time on The Financial Times, how much do you want for your conversation?’”