March 2019: The King is Dead, Long Live the King

This is the last issue of Waters that you will ever read. But we’re not going anywhere—far from it. As of April, we’re welcoming our sister title, Inside Data Management, into the fold, and becoming something greater in the process, a magazine that truly reflects the marriage of technology and data in the capital markets. Next month, the first issue of WatersTechnology will hit doormats across the world. This magazine will be a mean beast, combining the expertise of our legacy brands—Inside Market Data, Inside Reference Data, Buy-Side Technology and Sell-Side Technology—into a single entity, for truly the first time. It is enormously exciting.

Along with the launch of the new magazine, a lot has gone on behind the scenes to make it work. Our offices in London, New York and Hong Kong, and the talented journalists who staff them, have been realigned into a true, global newsroom, which will be reflected in the continuous coverage found in our online presence, WatersTechnology.com. You will have already seen changes taking place here, most noticeably the realignment of the design to reflect the areas we cover—technology, data management, trading tools, regulation, operations, management and strategy, and innovation. Our events calendar is being simplified to deliver the content that you need, and we’re continuing to invest in our editorial output through the magazine, through the website, through podcasts and everywhere else.

But why are we doing this? Simply put, when Waters was launched 25 years ago, technology and data were in very different places for financial-market firms. Since then, technology has become the business, and data an integral part of that—just see the rise of the chief data officer for more. Banks now refer to themselves as technology firms that run money, and the growing importance of information to new technologies, not least of all artificial intelligence and other such areas that are reshaping how firms trade and manage their businesses, should be reflected in the flagship publication that covers such an intersection.

This isn’t just a cosmetic change—the debut of WatersTechnology cuts to the very core of how we cover financial technology. You can expect in-depth investigative work, a great example of which is our exhaustive examination of the Consolidated Audit Trail. You can expect stories that don’t just cover one or the other, but bridge the gap between tech, data, politics and market structure developments, like our look at Brexit data concerns. You can expect more content, more expert, independent journalism that matters to you.

For over 25 years, Waters has been at the forefront of covering change in financial-market technology. Led by Max Bowie, our managing editor, we’re inviting you to come with us on the journey into the next 25 years, where we’ll cover the market in a depth unmatched by any publication on Wall Street, in the City, or anywhere else. It should be one hell of a ride.