Management Today editor Matthew Gwyther has pledged that "there's no chance of a midlife crisis" as the title celebrates its 40th anniversary with a special issue and an exhibition of iconic visuals from the magazine.
Gwyther said the visual exhibition at the Oxo Gallery, London, was a celebration of the secret to the B2B title's ongoing success, since it was founded by Haymarket in 1966.
"MT tried to make the coverage of business a lot less dour and boring than it had been before. Certainly visually it took its key from what were very new concepts, the Sunday colour supplements, The Sunday Times Magazine and The Observer Magazine.
"What that meant was that in the first 10 years we used people like illustrator Ralph Steadman and Spitting Image creators Fluck and Law. Right from the beginning [we used] very high design and production values in an area where that sort of thing was quite unfamiliar to readers."
Related
Gwyther, who has been editor since 2001, said that as Management Today developed, it pushed more towards analysis and in-depth features rather than news because of its monthly frequency, a position that was unlikely to change despite website developments over the next six months.
He said it would "clearly be a mistake" to challenge FT.com and Economist.com online because MT was "a much smaller organisation".
Gwyther declined to give details of MT's web strategy, but said the print product remained "absolutely core" and that the challenge to the title was now how to harness the power of the web.
Content from our partners
He said: "The way in which I feel you deal with it is not to regard it as a problem — you mustn't regard it as the elephant in the room, you have got to look at it from a positive point of view. You have got to work out what it is about your brand and individual identity that will translate best online."
The Art of Business: 40 years of Management Today runs until 17 September and the special anniversary issue is out now.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
