Farewell, but not goodbye, over but not out

Richard Adams, Editor

It was just over three years ago that my predecessor, Diane Smyth, wrote a comment entitled 'Three years in the life of an editor' and it now falls to me to embark on the same task. However, I promise to resist the obvious and hackneyed 'it's been challenging but rewarding', as these are givens that will become clear anyway. I will also omit a run through of the best anecdotes - which are unpublishable anyway - and spare you the spectator's potted view of how the industry has evolved during my watch.

I leave financial journalism then not to join Crankshaft Monthly, nor the Grauniad but to peruse a career in insurance, specifically public relations. One final promise - before getting into the convictions about insurance I have come to share with those in it - this will not be a self-indulgent monologue.

The small cabal of conspiracy theorists suggesting I have sold out has not stopped me coming over all Victor Kiam as I prepare to leave the office of professional observer to get involved at a commercial level. I am also unashamedly pleased about joining an industry that will, in all probability, forever languish in the doldrums of public popularity. Having already weathered and been the butt of all the jokes about insurance just for writing about it, I have no illusions.

As to that conviction I mentioned, I would say that as a career journalist, healthy cynicism, objectivity and detached impartiality have been my touchstones. Now, however, as one becoming detached from such arms-length journalistic modus operandi, I can admit to having been genuinely impressed.

I have come to admire many of your businesses first hand and admire too the universal resilience and colourful characters in, what is after all, a world class industry. Because insurance, I believe, is one of those industries that stopped the UK falling off the world stage completely after its industrial decline. The latest Association of British Insurers figures show the UK industry combined pays out a colossal £223m every day in claims, a fact surely reflective of how well managed it is but sadly not one that shifts national newspapers. So I step down to join a great industry - and one I am more than happy to sacrifice the spotlight to be part of.