Personnel Today

About Personnel Today

Personnel Today is the UK's leading online publication for HR professionals, covering human resources, employment law, recruitment and workplace strategy. Its history stretches back to a print magazine launched in February 1988; the website personneltoday.com followed in 1999, the print edition closed in 2010, and the title has continued as a digital-first B2B brand — most recently acquired by ProMedia Group UK, with the deal completing on 31 December 2025. It also runs the Personnel Today Awards. Visit the official website at personneltoday.com.

History and founding

Personnel Today's origins lie in a print magazine launched in February 1988 to serve the UK's personnel management profession — the forerunner of modern HR. The title grew with the professionalisation of human resources through the 1990s, and in 1999 it extended online with personneltoday.com, an early move into digital B2B publishing. A significant corporate chapter came in 2001 with the XpertHR joint venture — the online employment-law service that became essential infrastructure for HR departments, rebranded as Brightmine in 2024. The print magazine closed in 2010, completing the title's transition to digital-first publishing. On 31 December 2025 the brand was acquired by ProMedia Group UK, opening its latest chapter under new ownership.

Ownership and funding model

Personnel Today is now owned by ProMedia Group UK following the acquisition completed on 31 December 2025. The title operates as a B2B media brand: free to its professional readers and funded by advertising, sponsored content, webinars and commercial partnerships with HR technology providers, recruiters, law firms and consultants. Its awards programme adds a significant events revenue stream.

Editorial focus and coverage areas

Personnel Today covers the full spectrum of HR practice: employment law and case law, recruitment and talent management, pay and benefits, diversity and inclusion, employee relations, HR technology, and workplace strategy. Its journalism serves the daily information needs of HR professionals — what the law requires, what the courts decided, what peers are doing — with the practical emphasis that distinguishes trade press from general business media. The site's employment-law coverage, in particular, is essential professional reading, translating legal developments into actionable guidance.

Audience and reach

Personnel Today's audience is the UK's HR profession: HR directors, managers, advisers and business partners, plus employment lawyers, recruiters and consultants. The title claims around 300,000 monthly visitors, reflecting its position as the profession's primary online news source. Its readership spans every sector — HR is everywhere — giving it one of the broadest professional audiences in B2B media.

Business model

Personnel Today is free to readers and funded by the HR industry's suppliers: HR technology vendors, recruiters, training providers, law firms and consultants advertising to reach the profession. Sponsored content, webinars and virtual events add further revenue, and the Personnel Today Awards — the profession's flagship awards programme — generate entries, sponsorship and table sales. The diversified B2B model has sustained the brand through print, digital and ownership transitions.

Digital platforms, webinars and newsletters

Personnel Today publishes through personneltoday.com and distributes its journalism via email newsletters delivering HR news, law updates and event information. Its webinar programme extends the brand into professional development — online events on employment law changes, HR strategy and technology. Social media channels serve the HR community's professional networking, and the site's archive, stretching back to 1999, is a unique record of the profession's evolution.

The Personnel Today Awards

The Personnel Today Awards are the HR profession's most prestigious awards programme, recognising excellence across the full range of HR practice — from recruitment and talent management to diversity, wellbeing and HR technology. Winning is a career-defining accolade for HR teams and a powerful differentiator for suppliers. The awards' gala ceremony is a major fixture of the HR calendar, and the programme's judging by senior practitioners gives it credibility. For the brand, the awards reinforce its centrality to the profession it serves.

Community and industry role

Personnel Today functions as the HR profession's trade paper, forum and benchmark: the news source HR professionals check daily, the awards that define excellence, and the platform where the profession debates its future — from AI in recruitment to the evolving employment law landscape. Its history, from 1988 print launch through the XpertHR/Brightmine era to ProMedia ownership, mirrors the professionalisation and digitisation of HR itself.

Outlook

Personnel Today enters its ProMedia Group era as a digital-first brand serving a profession in flux — with AI transforming recruitment, employment law evolving, and workplace models still settling post-pandemic. Its 300,000 monthly visitors, its awards franchise and its quarter-century digital archive position it to remain the profession's essential read. For UK HR, it is what it has been since 1988: the paper of record.

From print to ProMedia: four decades of HR media

Personnel Today's corporate history reads like a case study in B2B media evolution. The 1988 print launch served a personnel-management profession still finding its identity. The 1999 website anticipated digital disruption. The 2001 XpertHR joint venture — later Brightmine — recognised that HR professionals needed data and guidance, not just news, creating one of the profession's most valuable digital assets. The 2010 print closure acknowledged the digital future. And the December 2025 ProMedia Group acquisition positions the brand for its next phase. Through each transition, the core proposition endured: practical, reliable, independent journalism for the people who manage Britain's workplaces. That continuity — serving the same profession through four decades of change — is the brand's defining achievement, and the foundation for its future.

Employment law coverage: the profession's lifeline

Personnel Today's employment-law coverage is arguably its most valuable editorial asset — and the reason HR professionals keep returning. The site translates the complexities of UK employment law into practical guidance: tribunal rulings explained, legislative changes analysed, and the implications for day-to-day HR practice spelled out. In a legal landscape that never stands still — from holiday-pay calculations to IR35, from flexible-working rights to the evolving law on AI in recruitment — the site's authoritative, accessible coverage functions as a professional lifeline. Its heritage in this area runs deep: the 2001 XpertHR joint venture recognised early that HR needed a dedicated legal-information service, and the personnel-today.com archive, stretching back to 1999, documents a quarter-century of employment-law evolution. For HR practitioners without in-house legal teams — the majority — the site's law coverage is often their first port of call when a tricky issue arises. Employment lawyers, too, read it for the case-law roundups and the practical perspective on how legal developments play out in workplaces. The ProMedia Group acquisition positions this franchise for further development: in an era of regulatory change and workplace transformation, authoritative employment-law journalism is among the most defensible assets in B2B media.

The December 2025 ProMedia Group acquisition opens Personnel Today's next chapter with a well-resourced owner and a clear mandate: to remain the HR profession's essential read through an era of profound workplace change. The brand's assets — its 300,000 monthly visitors, its quarter-century archive, its awards franchise, its employment-law authority — give the new owners plenty to build on. For the HR professionals who start their working day with the site, the hope is that the acquisition brings investment in the journalism they rely on. Four decades after the 1988 print launch, Personnel Today's core proposition — practical, reliable, independent journalism for the people who manage Britain's workplaces — remains as relevant as ever.