A British magazine focused on ESG investment has ceased operations after less than five years, as political opposition to the movement, spearheaded by Donald Trump, continues to gather pace.
ESG Investor, an online publication launched in 2020 to tap into the growing market for socially conscious investment, announced the closure of its editorial and commercial operations on Monday after failing to secure fresh funding.
The magazine announced on its website, “After nearly five years of running ESG Investor, we’re sorry to say that we will be calling a halt to editorial and commercial operations as of the Monday 28th April.”
Chris Hall, the founding editor, said the title had cut jobs at the end of last year as advertising revenues began to weaken, but efforts to attract further investment ultimately fell short.
The magazine, which had built an audience of over 7,000 readers and 34,000 LinkedIn followers, has folded amid a broader cooling of interest in ESG initiatives, following a series of executive orders from Trump targeting the sector. Critics of the ESG movement, which Trump and allies such as Elon Musk have labelled “woke capitalism” and a “scam”, have intensified legal and political pressure on asset managers and companies promoting environmental and social goals.
This backlash has led many major corporates to scale back their climate change ambitions, with BP notably shifting its focus away from renewables back towards oil and gas.
Hall acknowledged that asset managers — a key source of advertising and event sponsorship for the magazine — had grown increasingly cautious. “Particularly US managers have come under a lot of pressure, legal and political,” he said. “They’ve not really wanted to advertise their wares or put their head above the parapet because they’re aware that would cause them quite serious legal trouble.”
Tighter regulations aimed at preventing “greenwashing” have also made fund managers more wary of publicly promoting ESG commitments, further eroding the magazine’s advertising base.
“Ultimately, when these things happen, you have to take responsibility yourself,” Hall said. “We built up quite a good following but failed to turn that into a sustainable commercial model — and we only have ourselves to blame for that.”
Signs of fading enthusiasm for ESG investment were already evident before Mr Trump’s re-election bid. Global sustainable investment funds saw record outflows of $8.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025, according to Morningstar data, marking the tenth consecutive quarter of declines among US investors.
Analysts suggest investors are increasingly rethinking diversity and sustainability policies amid shifting political climates and a broader economic slowdown.
Reflecting on the closure, ESG Investor’s senior reporter, Emmy Hawker, wrote on LinkedIn: “It’s impossible to deny the long shadow of Trump, or the cautious pragmatism creeping into investors’ sustainable finance strategies.” However, she added, “I truly believe ESG-related themes have taken root, with financial institutions around the world recognising the materiality of the natural world around us.”
At its peak, ESG Investor attracted around 40,000 page views per month from 20,000 unique users, with approximately half of its audience based in Europe and just under a quarter in North America.
The magazine was owned by Hong Kong-based publisher inAsia Media, which will continue to operate its sister publication, Regulation Asia.
