It is hard to imagine how different the digital landscape was when we launched FTAdviser in 2005. There were no smartphones back then, very little video content – YouTube was only months old – and every trade publication was persisting with a print-first approach.
Tentatively, a small team of two – me and one junior reporter - tried to provide the UK retail finance industry with all the information it would need on a minute-by-minute basis, relying heavily on an increased flow of stories from the Financial Adviser team to bolster our offering.
We quickly found that readers, and the wider adviser community, were quick to embrace what we were doing.
And we soon found the joy of digital publishing was the ability to try lots of new things – and ditch them just as quickly if they didn’t work.
Several innovative ideas are taken for granted now. It sounds ridiculous but even breaking news online was a novelty. We also developed communities, online training and - I am so sorry - the first live blog of a Budget speech in 2006.
While those examples are all now taken for granted, I am pleased to see the spirit of innovation continue with ideas like FTAdviser Advantage, the CPD tracker and the OnAir live videos.
Jon Cudby was the launch editor of FTAdviser
