As Financial Adviser goes to the presses for the last time, we speak with three former senior journalists who worked on the paper.
Emma-Ann Hughes, former editor
When I joined Financial Adviser in 2003 as a reporter, the working days were long, the number of invites to networking opportunities abundant and the size of the weekly newspaper the team had to fill was massive.
When I left as editor of Financial Adviser and FTAdviser almost two years ago, the entire profession had changed, along with the way it wished to receive news.
When I joined Financial Adviser, the working days were long and the number of invites to networking opportunities abundant Emma-Ann Hughes, Personal Finance SocietyThe number of pink pages to fill were no longer plentiful, so Financial Adviser successfully shifted from being a newspaper to becoming a news digest while you received breaking news via social media and email alerts.
You showed your approval by voting for Financial Adviser to be named trade publication of the year at the Personal Finance Society Awards and the Santander Media Awards.
I was sad to learn of the demise of the trusted Financial Adviser, but know the current team of journalists will continue to tread the same path of journalistic excellence as their predecessors via FTAdviser.com.
As my former editor Hal Austin instructed me all those years ago, so too will the current journalists endeavour always to ask the right questions of senior figures in the profession and investigate issues that could impact your business.
Ms Hughes is now communications director of the Personal Finance Society
Hal Austin, former editor
Losing a newspaper – any publication – is like losing a relative. We go through the various stages of mourning and wonder: Where did it all go wrong? What could I have done?
The closure of Financial Adviser, even though I have been removed from it now going five years, came as a shock to me.
Losing a newspaper – any publication – is like losing a relative Hal AustinAll the arguments about the shift to digital, readers’ shortening attention span and the shift of advertising from print to online simply reflect the changes taking place in newspaper publishing, and in the wider society.
[Remember], digital is the machine, the vehicle – it is not the message and people read to get the information, the details, the knowledge transfer. Most of all journalism is about people, both those one works with and those who read what one has written.
When I joined Financial Adviser, or FA as it was affectionately known to insiders, as assistant features editor in 2000, there were a number of very enthusiastic young men and women, with varying degrees of talent.
Some were clearly destined to go much further in journalism, and some in finance; others were lucky they even got a job at the entry level in the craft. But the measure of a good, or even competent, editor is bringing those individuals together and seeing how the team develops, from a young reporter with potential, to emerging on the national stage.
Financial Adviser over the past decades has produced its fair share of talent in terms of those who graduated from a small, if influential, trade paper to the national stage.
It has also produced financial analysts, at least one fund manager and inspiring colleagues.
Financial Adviser was a great newspaper and, from experience, had many qualities far superior to many well-known national newspapers. It was a model of good trade journalism.
Mr Austin is now retired
Kevin O'Donnell, former editor
In 1989 I joined Financial Adviser as a reporter from a job as industrial editor of an evening newspaper when the world of financial advice was very different to today. IFAs were paid almost entirely by commission and mis-selling was rife.
It was a world of multiple regulators and some companies could pick which one they joined. The main regulator of IFAs was called Fimbra, which some wags unfairly nicknamed ‘Flip it, My Broker's Run Away" (or words to that effect). Fimbra recruited many ex-police officers as investigators for a reason.
Despite all this there was a sense of excitement that a new profession was being born, although it would be a long time before the industry flowered and headed in the direction of a becoming a true profession.
Financial Adviser was based in a small, noisy office in Clerkenwell and was one of the newest trade newspapers for a sector that was beginning to burgeon. Stories then were put together on floppy disk and sent to the printers by motorbike courier. When the courier came off his bike one week the issue nearly didn’t come out.
Over my 17 years at FA and the FT group there were many highlights. Launching the Service Awards was one, started after a campaign we ran to expose poor service standards among providers. Being one of the first ever UK trade titles to launch its own website in about 1995, when the internet was in its infancy, was another.
Financial Adviser won many awards for its journalism, including the coveted ABI Media Awards several times, and steadily established itself as a trusted and comprehensive news source.
Competition with other trade titles was as intense as it is today. That reputation was not instant but won over many years of slog and investment in quality journalism by some excellent journalists I was fortunate to work with.
A personal highlight for me was working with a very talented and fun team who often saw the funnier side of the sector. Newsroom humour and banter is unique. Many of them now work on the nationals or the FT and a few still at FA, which has managed to keep several of its best people.
I also helped recruit and train many younger journalists who went on to have successful careers. I remember at times we were inundated with job applications, including over 300 for one trainee role with many Oxbridge graduates applying.
As editor I was fortunate enough to be holding the reins as staff numbers grew rapidly along with pagination, with some issues reaching nearly 200 pages when supplements were included.
The jobs supplement alone was often 24 pages. It was the peak of print and the excitement of saying 'hold the front page' to run a new splash (front page lead) was second to none.
Stories came thick and fast and with few financial PRs around (financial PR was in its infancy) you could often get through to the chief executives of major providers just by ringing early in the morning, as we often did. Happy days.
Kevin O'Donnell is publisher and group editor for Financial Planning Today
