When the Financial Times does social networking, you expect it to do it with flair and a certain panache. However, their release of three ‘Executive Membership‘ forums seems to be taking the idea of niche a little too far. What they’re offering, in fact, is a series of exclusive clubs for high level execs. But at a cost. I don’t know the cost but Mashable is reporting a starting fee of £1700. Per annum. (It’s fair to point out that Mashable are also saying that the site can’t handle Firefox. It looks fine in my Firefox browser, so I assume the FT have fixed this pretty quickly.)

I can’t find any costs mentioned on the site but there is an application form for a brochure, which presumably contains the membership rates. I joined a network that required paid memberships before and left it very quickly. The FT are ladling on the benefits for their members in the three sectors they’ve created but I can’t help but feel dispirited by a network that uses net worth as its entry point. What do you think? Is exclusivity superior to niche? Would you want to be part of a network of financial peers only?

Tags: Financial Times, Mashable