I was very surprised by the number of calls and mails I received yesterday following my publishing the tweet from Maria Espadinha announcing she was leaving to join the PLSA’s policy team. This follow up is to clear up a couple of things

1. I have no more information on this than anyone else, all I have had from the FT is confirmation that they will adjust their website to reflect changes in personnel and a statement that a pro-tem editor will be found from freelances.
2. The FT has made no announcement as to Pension Expert’s future and we must assume that it is a title that continues to be on its roster of publications
3. There is a lot more public appreciation for what Pension Expert achieved with Maria at the helm than I thought, in short- I touched a nerve with many readers of my blog.

We desperately need good quality reporting of pension issues and the editorial pieces that we have got from Pensions Expert and others. We are blessed in having a dedicated journalist at the FT in Jo Cumbo who acts as an antennae. Het twitter feed is perhaps the most important of all that I follow and when Jo goes on holiday, the secondary sources are more diverse, less insightful and less prompt. The interaction between Jo and the Pension Expert Team was immensely valuable to us and will be sorely missed.

I am not a journalist but a commentator, often on stories broken by others, occasionally I will be quoted in the trade press and I’m always pleased to be.

When Pensions Expert was Pensions Week , it ran as a weekly paper which arrived in a polythene bag and delivered us stories that were at best three days old. Today’s digital updates from Pension Expert bring us an actuality that Andy Michaels, Tom Powdrill. Gillian Wadsworth and the other early journalists must marvel at today.

But Pensions Expert carries with it the creative and intrepid journalism of its previous incarnation which broke the monopoly of monthly publications and alongside Professional Pensions made pensions newsworthy. These two publications also gave an opportunity for people to articulate their views independently of their company and were the progenitors of the independent blogging which we take for granted today.

Which is perhaps why we hold the titles dear and hope that the future of Pensions Expert is better than it seems to be today.

Too many conferences, too much journalism and too many seminars are little more than advertorial for the hosting company. We need a strong and independent press that carries us news unconstrained by the ownership of the publication. That Pensions Week/Expert has brought us that for over 25 years is something we have taken for granted.

I hope that – belatedly – the industry can support Pensions Expert through this difficult period so we can continue to have its benign influence on our working lives.

Angus Peters

Maria Espadinha

Andy Michaels

Tom Powdrill

Gillian Wadsworth