Money and personal finance magazines

Ashville Media Group Back to top

The Investor, which claims to be Ireland's only magazine for the private investor, is published 10 times a year.

BBC Worldwide Ltd

In September 2005, launched How to be Better Off, a one-shot personal finance magazine, with FT Business (below). It appears to be published once a year and features content from TV and radio shows such as Money Box, You and Yours and Working Lunch. The editorial strategy is to sell to 'readers who are interested in personal financial management but find current sources of advice in the market daunting'.
BBC Worldwide profile

Charterhouse Back to top

Charterhouse specialises in investment and financial magazines, books and websites. It publishes the consumer monthly What Mortgage magazine for prospective house purchasers, borrowers transferring between lenders or types of mortgage, and financial intermediaries. The company has mortgage and wealth management divisions. In April 2008, it went into administration.

The Economist Newspaper Ltd

The Economist was founded in 1843. It is an international magazine of economics and politics rather than personal finance. The Economist has always been called a newspaper though its format is that of a weekly magazine. Since 1928, it has been half owned by the Financial Times Group (Pearson profile); the other shares are held by independent shareholders. The editor's independence is guaranteed by a board of trustees. To mark its first 150 years, it carried an article by Ruth Dudley Edwards* . This began: 'The main virtues of today's Economist - reverence for facts and figures, integrity, consistency of principle, rational analysis and absolute clarity - were already visible under the editorship (1843-57) of its founder, James Wilson, a Scottish hat-manufacturer. So too were the main defects: arrogance, priggishness, absence of doubt, frequent failures of imagination and too-clever-by-halfery.' Contact:
*The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist 1843-1993 by Ruth Dudley Edwards is published by Hamish Hamilton (1993) and Harvard Business School Press (1995)

FT Business

FT Business is the specialist publishing arm of Financial Times Group, which is owned by Pearson (profile). It publishes 14 titles, including:

• Investors Chronicle a personal investing weekly. Most of the website can only be accessed by subscribers. Investors Chronicle also runs events.
• Three titles for retail investors, such as Financial Adviser.
• The Banker and nine other title for institutional investors.
• In September 2005, launched How to be Better Off, a one-off magazine, with BBC Worldwide (above). This featured personal finance and investing based around TV and radio shows such as Money Box, You and Yours and Working Lunch.

Guardian Magazines Ltd Back to top

The Guardian gained control of Money Observer, which was founded in 1979, when it took over the Sunday Observer newspaper in 1993. It sold the title to Moneywise in February 2008.
Guardian profile

Incisive Media Back to top

Your Mortgage was founded in 1986 as a monthly magazine for mortgage borrowers. Website includes news, mortgage calculators and best buy tables.
Incisive profile

Moneyweek Ltd

Among the facts Moneyweek quotes to advertisers are that 34% of readers are employed at board level, and that the average reader has invested in shares worth £148,000. It publishes its 'best' articles on personal finance and investing a month after they appear in print.

Moneywise Publishing Ltd top

Moneywise is the biggest-selling personal finance magazine in the UK. The website (December 2005) quotes an ABC figure of 60,035, but this dates back to 2003, as does the NRS readership figure of 182,000. It gives data on products its readers buy:

In February 2008, Moneywise Publishing bought personal finance monthly Money Observer from Guardian Media Group. The deal came a month after GMG combined with private equity group Apax Partners to buy the trade magazines arm of Emap. With monthly sales of 23,827 in 2007, Money Observer trails behind Moneywise’s 30,151. claims to the 'the UK's leading personal finance and investing magazine'. The website carries stories from Money Observer, a free weeky newsletter of investment tips and news about personal finance.

Moneywise was bought by Capital Accumulation from the UK arm of Reader's Digest Association in October 2004. Capital Accumulation also owns investment website Interactive Investor.

Partridge Publications (2000)

What Franchise is a free magazine sent to people interested in buying a franchise and starting their own business. The magazine carries a listings section with details of franchise opportunities on offer.

Seven Publishing Ltd Back to top

Who Wants to be a Millionaire was launched in October 2005 by Seven Publishing but has since closed. It was published under licence from Celador, who make the TV series of the same name. Seven's main title is the food monthly Delicious.
Seven profile

Spear Media

Contract publisher headed by journalist William Cash. Publications include Spear’s Wealth Management Survey, a quarterly sent to 25,000 wealthy people and families across Europe, and Annabel's, for the London night club. Its titles aim for the 'super rich' and 'high net worth individuals'.

Money and personal finance titles (2005) Back to top

Investors Chronicle (weekly)

FT Business

Moneywise/Guardian Magazines