It has been a year of experimentation for MFM’s publications. In September 2023 we published the last printed version of The Financial Manager, the association’s venerable magazine that had served our members well for many 50 years. Like many traditional print publications, the magazine was plagued by high production and distribution costs and low readership. The “remote work” phenomena triggered by the Covid pandemic meant that we were mailing magazines to the offices of two-thirds of our subscribers where they no longer worked.
In October 2023 we unveiled two new digital publications: MFM SmartBrief, a weekly newsletter providing summaries of 6-8 of the most important news and editorial coverage of issues important to financial professionals in the industry, and MFMInSites.com, the digital version of the magazine containing more in-depth stories and published in conjunction with Jack Myers and MediaVillage.
MFMInSites.com experienced some growing pains over the first few months, but quickly settled into a groove of publishing two stories per week – emailed to members on Monday and Wednesday – with a compilation of stories sent at the end of each month. Many of the pieces featured video interviews with association and industry leaders, as well as speakers from conferences and meetings.
From my perspective, over the last year we published what I thought were some of the most interesting interviews and insightful stories in the business. But it’s a crowded space. I’ve never been a part of any industry with so many trade publications as the media and entertainment industry. And recently, several of those publications have ceased production simply because there is an overcapacity of self-focused news and information.
While the open rate for MFMInSites.com emails was solid, readers didn’t spend much time reading or listening to the stories. Moreover, producing and distributing two quality stories per week isn’t easy, especially considering the bulk of our content producers are volunteers. That’s more than double the content of The Financial Manager, which was published six times per year and contained only 4-5 stories per issue.
We were also concerned that emailing two stories per week to members was contributing to their already overstuffed inboxes and diluting the impact of MFM SmartBrief (which has found its footing and is proving to be very popular with members) and the other emails we send to members about MFM conferences, services and other opportunities.
After careful consideration, we’ve decided to alter the production of MFMInSites.com. Through October 2024 we will publish one story per month, emailed to members on Wednesdays. This is the first of those stories. Beginning November 1, we will begin publishing “The MFM Spreadsheet,” a monthly newsletter that lists everything on the MFM agenda for the coming month, including conferences, webinars, Member Network teleconferences, and other information on our products and programs. We will also include an MFMInSites.com-type story or two featuring an in-depth look at a particular issue or an interview with an industry leader. The interviews will be audio recordings (call them podcasts if you like), which you can listen to when it’s convenient.
We will continue to maintain the MFMInSites.com platform on the MediaVillage website, and all stories from the past year, as well as all new items published in “The MFM Spreadsheet” will be posted there. In addition, the site is a wonderful place for MFM members and Associate Members to self-publish stories, white papers, research reports and other information that industry financial professionals would find interesting. If you want to learn how to self-publish your relevant, non self-promotional articles, please contact Maryann Teller of MediaVillage at Maryann@mediavillage.org.
Finally, I would like to thank the incredible group of volunteers who got MFMInSites.com off the ground and who will continue to serve as the editorial committee guiding future content for the stories in “The MFM Spreadsheet.” Please join me in a heartfelt thank you for:
- John Sanders, Bond & Pecaro
- Robin Szabo, Szabo Associates
- Sally Buckman, Lerman Senter PLLC
- Beth Osborne, Marketron
- Brianna Kerr, Worksome
We will also be saying farewell to Krista Van Lewen on November 1. Krista not only served as the editor and contributor to MFMInSites.com, but also handled many other publica affairs duties for the association, including writing much of our product and event promotional material and managing the script and staging of the Annual Conference General Sessions. She will be missed, and we wish good luck in her future endeavors.
As always, I welcome your questions and comments about MFM and your suggestions as to how we can make membership more valuable to you and to your company. Please contact me at joe.annotti@mediafinance.org.
Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.
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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.