For the past couple of years, The Treasurer has conducted a reader survey that is designed to gather your thoughts, opinions and ideas about the magazine. The survey results have greatly contributed to the development and improvement of the magazine since its relaunch in July 2012. While our aim was to maintain the high-quality standard of The Treasurer, we needed to make changes to give the magazine a bold, modern look, broaden the range and depth of its content and enrich the overall reader experience.
This year’s survey will continue to inform our editorial strategy in future. Its key findings are presented here.
Readers from around the world took part in the survey and contributed their thoughts and ideas. We had responses from across Europe and further afield, including Asia-Pacific, Australia, India, the Middle East and the US.
The results indicate consistent engagement with the magazine, with over a third of readers spending an hour or more reading their copy of The Treasurer. Furthermore, the results reveal that nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents read every issue, with 70% spending more than 30 minutes doing so.
Treasury essentials and Briefing are the most popular sections of the magazine
We believe this means that our content is relevant and useful to you. Our view is reinforced by the fact that, when asked: ‘What are your reasons for reading The Treasurer?’, just under 85% of respondents answered: ‘Relevant, up-to-date technical information’. In addition, the 68% who refer to The Treasurer for their continuing professional development demonstrate that the treasury profession is accepting the challenge of keeping itself relevant and updated. It is also pleasing to see that over 50% of readers value the quality of our business analysis and international insight.
Treasury essentials and Briefing are the most popular sections of the magazine, with 57% of readers saying that they always read these pages. Other favourites are the Economic trends column, Technical briefing, the career articles and the profile interviews. ACT CEO Colin Tyler is our most popular columnist. Looking ahead, readers would like to see more independent editorial on specific treasury topics (cited by 52.7%), more industry thought leadership (36.6%), more economic commentary (33%) and more letters and comments from other treasurers (32.1%).
Readers find the magazine a useful means of identifying events that they would benefit from attending. Hence over half of respondents have been prompted to participate in either a cash and liquidity management event or a risk management event as a result of being kept informed about topical news on those subjects. As we continue to develop our editorial focus in the magazine, we will look to drive more awareness of our international flagship events to feed this growing demand.
Corporate treasurers see accessing a variety of editorial sources as an essential part of their working lives. Therefore, we asked readers to compare The Treasurer with other publications, in order to assess its appeal as a regular source of information. Readers were asked the question: ‘Which of the following magazines or websites do you read?’ We learned that besides The Treasurer, the overwhelming majority of our respondents predominately read just the Financial Times and The Economist.
The appeal of The Treasurer is clear, since over 80% of respondents say that they are highly likely to recommend the magazine to a colleague or a business acquaintance, reaffirming The Treasurer as a dependable source of information that is worthy of being shared.
Since The Treasurer’s website went live in January 2013, readers have been able to access its features, news and web-exclusive content, which is published every month at www.treasurers.org/thetreasurer
The website also provides a complete online digital library of editions dating back more than 10 years. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents either always or sometimes find the ‘Publications’ part of the ACT website to be most useful for obtaining information.
The web-exclusive articles have contributed to a rise in social media activity, since readers have become increasingly aware of The Treasurer’s website. Just as interesting, readers are indicating that their preferred choice of communication is LinkedIn, with an overwhelming 87% of respondents choosing this platform as their desired form of social media interaction.
Despite ease of access to the information on the website, we could still do more to raise awareness of the site’s offerings. This particularly became apparent when readers were asked: ‘Did you know you can read and download The Treasurer online?’ Just under 60% of respondents answered: ‘Yes, they were aware, often accessing it this way’ or: ‘Yes, but never accessed content in this way’. As technology progresses and new ways for accessing and consuming content are developed, we will embrace and adopt these methods to ensure that we are providing the required support to our readers and wider international audience, when and where necessary.
Overall, we are really thrilled with the positive feedback that we got from the survey. The responses have helped us to understand your needs better in order to shape future editions of the magazine and to further support the working life of today’s corporate treasurer.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey and for your contribution to supporting the magazine.
Kit Ojigho is advertising and sponsorship manager at the ACT