This edition of Money Management celebrates this publication’s 30th anniversary and, by definition, the 30th anniversary of our Fund Manager of the Year Awards event.
It says much about Money Management that it was born out of the 1987 market crash and that much of its growth and continued market leadership has been owed to the advent of the superannuation guarantee (SG) and the manner in which this fuelled the growth of the Australian funds management industry.
As the team at Money Management have reflected on the origins and history of this publication, we have felt ourselves drawn to the former editors and journalists who have overseen and written the content. We have also reflected upon the fact that Money Management was originally part of the Fairfax stable of publications before being overseen by David Koch and then being sold to Reed Business publishing.
At the time of writing, Money Management is owned by Cirrus Media which in turn is owned by private equity firm, Catalyst Private Equity. From next month, Money Management will be owned by UK-based business, Financial Express – something which will see it evolve further to better serve its market. Financial Express has been core to delivering the Money Management Investment Centre. Those familiar with the Financial Express/Trustnet business in the UK will understand how our combined capabilities will see us now help advisers and their clients make better informed investment decisions underpinned by credible quantitative research. But irrespective of who owns Money Management, the purpose of the masthead remains unchanged – to serve and inform the many thousands of people working in the Australian financial services industry.
As someone who has been associated with Money Management for the best part of 15 years, half the life of the publication, I think it is only fitting that I give recognition to those who have gone before – people such as David Koch, Bruce Madden, Stuart Engel and Jason Spits. There have been many others, of course, on the sales/publishing side with people such as Susie Newham and Kevin Kandasami coming to mind. I think it is also right to reflect upon many of those who have been integral to the stories which have made headlines in Money Management over the past 30 years – people such as Chris Cuffe, Barry Lambert, Gwen Fletcher, Stephen van Eyk and Peeyush Gupta.
Many things have changed about Money Management over the past 30 years but the greatest change has been the advent of the internet and the fact that while this publication remains available in print, it reaches our readers five days a week via our daily e-newsletters and, if the news is important enough, via our occasional news flashes. I think it is fair to say that our daily web presence has changed Money Management in a way that was never envisaged by its founders. It has taken a monthly trade publication and turned it into a source of daily and sometimes hourly up to date news. Money Management now utilises a variety of channels including the social media vehicles provided by Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. As new distribution channels emerge, we will undoubtedly use them as well.
In the 30 years of publishing Money Management, we have seen two recessions, a global financial crisis and at least three market corrections. The ongoing growth of the Australian financial services industry and our new ownership and increased capabilities means that we will be there to report and commentate on many more such events. We look forward to serving our readers and the industry that employs them for another 30 years.
