War of the IR magazines
By Dominic Jones,
IR Web Report
While we don't subscribe to it ourselves, one
of the unwritten taboos of journalism is that
you never acknowledge or write about the competition.
Well, not as long as you can help it.
That is why you haven't read this story before,
and why it is left to us to tell you about the
heavyweight battle being fought between current
world title-holder IR Magazine and its
dynamic new rival Real IR magazine.
|
|
| In two
short years, Real IR has become a
force in Europe. |
Launched in March 2004, Real IR is published
10 times a year by Caspian Publishing, a privately
owned publishing company and events organizer
based in London, UK. The magazine, Caspian's
fourth in less than a decade, claims a circulation
of just over 8,500 mostly in Europe.
In the other corner, IR Magazine, which
claims a global circulation of 15,000, has been
published since 1988. It is owned by London-based
Cross Border Group, also a privately-held publisher
and event management company that publishes
two other magazines and a variety of special
reports and studies.
Competition is good
It is quite the scrap that is shaping
up between these two capable competitors. So
far the only obvious winners are European IROs,
who are getting a double dose of monthly articles
and news to keep them up to speed on trends
and practices in the profession.
However, the challenge from Real IR does
seem to have lit a fire under IR Magazine's
publishers (although I am still wondering what
happened to that exclusive we gave them on our
online annual reports survey a few months back!).
For instance, Cross Border now has a new
website. It's much better than the old one,
except that you now have to pay to access archived
articles. More about that later.
At Real IR (http://www.realir.net),
by contrast, the Web is a weakness. Only a couple
of stories from each issue are available online
and they are not archived. This is potentially
a lost opportunity for the magazine to broaden
its reach, especially outside of Europe.
Editorially, the magazines are very much even,
though we do like the fresh, more dynamic look
of Real IR. The new magazine also has
done a good job attracting well-known writers
and columnists, including Financial Times
investment editor Philip Coggan and Chris Blackhurst,
City editor of the London Evening Standard.
New European IR awards
event announced
It is in event staging and not in publishing
where the war of the European IR periodicals
is getting decidedly more interesting.
IR Magazine has made a name for itself
with its glitzy black-tie awards shows. This
year, Cross Border will hold 14 such shindigs,
from New York to Mumbai, and places in between.
Awards have become a major part of the business,
and one it has had a near-monopoly on.
 |
| IR Magazine
boasts 15,000 circulation |
But Real IR recently fired a shot across
IR Magazine's bow by announcing that
it is teaming up with the prestigious Thomson
Extel Survey to present, as Real IR
editor Scott Payton describes it, "the
first genuinely pan-European celebration of
the very best in investor relations."
Going even further, Caspian's website proclaims
that the Real IR Annual Dinner & Thomson
Extel Survey awards for IR Excellence are
"the definitive proof that Real IR
is the number-one name in European investor
relations."
It is indeed quite the coup for Real IR.
The Thomson Extel Survey awards, now in their
33rd year, are widely regarded as the preeminent
awards or Oscars of Europe's investment community.
How do we know this? Why, we read
it in IR Magazine, of course. On the old
website. You know, where the articles are still
free...?
Read our