John Diffenthall says:
The bad news for companies like ours is that, if my dinner companions are typical, access to accountants is a lot more tricky than putting an ad in a professional magazine. Neither of them read the primary journal which claims to have the widest readership amongst accountants in the UK. They subscribe, they look at the cover but they don’t read it.
In the words of Pink Floyd: “Is anybody out there?”
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as well as golf, I used to be into cars (before my kids appeared on the scene) - you are quite right about jeremy, and I stand corrected. Mind you he does have a lot of chips on his shoulders!!!
Alastair
You've never come across a golfist before? You clearly don't watch Top Gear. Jeremy Clarkson makes me look like a positive enthusiast for the game. :-)
Richard
Richard, how about if your passions are golf and accountancy? I know it sounds sad, but it could happen!
p.s. I have never stumbled across anyone who is golfist before!
Richard
Apologies, I was trying to be lighthearted.
Mea culpa.
John
Now here's the serious point.
It's not just me who doesn't play golf. I know vast numbers of accountants who don't - and most of them have the clients anyone whould want.
The myth that business is done in the golf club is based on fact - but what class of business do you want? That run by people who so lack commitment they spend the day hitting little balls into big bunkers of sand, or that run by people whose passion is for what they do?
I knew - which was another good reason not to take up golf
Richard
Richard
I can handle ethically dubious - I was employed by both PwC and KPMG.
A good friend of mine once told me that golf isn't a game - it's a disease. but it's given me an idea about advertising to accountants using space in Club Houses! I realise that this novel advertising approach would miss you out, so I'll probably have to buy space somewhere in Accman Pro as well.
John
Some of us also dislike both hospitality tents on the grounds that they're ethically dubious and golf because we have bette things to do in life.
Which doesn't help you either!
Richard
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/blog/.
Gentlemen, if so many of you dislike the journal, why don't you vote with your feet like Stuart Jones? The fact that few of you read it makes my job harder of course - I still need access to the accounting community and this debate has illustrated why that isn't going to be entirely straightforward. I like the idea of meeting you all in hospitality tents, but that's a very slow method of developing any significant level of reach.
Thank you everyone for your advice. I have cancelled my subscription today.
I am writing from India.I agree with the post and comments.I have found that ,even with good editing,the official mag is not read.Blame it on the Editors and more so on the Accountants themselves who subscribe. Accountants, once they qualify,shun professional reading.I have also found that they do not cope up with professional dvelopments,the way they are expected to.In my own small way I have tried groups to discuss professional matters,in my locality.But other than a few,no one is interested.CPE was ment to make Accountants truly uptodate -but I doubt its effectiveness.
It's always been perceived as the 'official' organ of ICAEW - especially with all those EDs etc in there hasn't it?
The wouldn't sell any ads if no-one subscribed.
They'd sell fewer ads if none of is subscribed.
But we do?
Why?
Richard Murphy
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/blog/.
Yep. When explaining the realities of the press to our clients we refer to this sort of thing as 'wrapperware'. Goes in the bin still in its wrapper.
Sad but true.
How they sell ads, I have no idea.
It is rubbish mainly because it is irrelevent, covers lots of dross and is sycophantic in the extreme. Unfortunately the web site is worse - one of the reasons why the Age and Aweb are so popular?
I imagine it lives on because of the supposed link with the institute.
My copy arrived this morning. What do you "don't read it"? I always look at the disciplinary reports (mainly to check I'm not in the list - LOL) and the practice section index and then I drop the magazine on the floor next to my desk - to read later.
The pile is now a metre high!
BTW who should take the blame? The chartered accountants or the editor & reporters?
The mag in question is not worth the paper it is written on, and has not been for a long long time. If nothing else then at least the changes in CPD recognised that.
I would have thought the best place to find an accountant would be in the hospitality tent at any of the major sporting events, or on the golf course! Not too difficult to work out the lure of the blackberry.
Accountants must do continuous professional education. It's always been thought that buying your own Institute's professional journal was an essential part of this.
So people subscribed.
And 97% of copies stay in their polythene wrapper.
Actually, I open mine. What's worse though is that for some years I have wondered why I bother.
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