The Member Magazine

As a result of delivery problems experienced with the member magazine, The Financial Planner, this year, we conducted a detailed review the magazine with input from our members. A survey was ran from 30 August to 9 September to gauge members’ views and suggestions regarding the magazine. 449 members participated in the survey which represented a sample of approximately 7% of the total membership. A summary of the main items surveyed is below:

Question		Result
Is the magazine a valuable member benefit?		89,5% - Yes
Is the content valuable technical information?		93.3% - Yes
What is the preferred frequency of the magazine?		42.5% every alternate month, quarterly 32.3% and monthly 25.2%
What is the preferred method of delivery?		38.8% electronic only, 34.5% electronic and printed and 26.7% printed only
If the magazine is electronic, would you like an option to subscribe to a printed version?		54.1% - Yes
What would you pay for a subscription-based printed version?		81,2% - R25, 18.2% - R50 and 0.6% - R75
Is a reduced/negotiated subscription rate to other magazines a valuable benefit to you?		86.2% - Yes
The overwhelming response was that the magazine is of value to our members and as your professional body, we remain committed to providing you with a high quality magazine as a valuable member benefit with technical content to keep you up to date with developments in the financial planning industry.

Production of the Magazine
The current basis of distribution of the magazine is on a full risk, outsourced basis through an external publisher. The total production cost (editorial, printing and postage) is in the order of R150 000 per issue, which is just under R1 million p.a. for six issues.

The full production costs are funded by the publisher and offset with advertising revenue. No production costs are funded from FPI membership revenue. Since the publisher has experienced reduced advertising support over the last two years for a number of reasons, it has become increasingly difficult to cover the full production costs.

Future of the Magazine
You would have recently received your June/July copy of the magazine. This August/September issue will be the third issue for 2011, the digital copy can be downloaded below. We are currently planning the fourth and final 2011 issue which will be October/November issue to be sent to you by the end of November/early in December.

As a temporary measure, during 2012, a printed version of the magazine will be made available to you FREE OF CHARGE based on a subscription basis. A digital copy will be sent to all members and all current and future issues made available on the FPI website.

In addition, based on the feedback received from members, the magazine will continue to be produced on an alternate monthly basis. We will however be reviewing the content to provide you with specialised content in the various financial planning disciplines and other topics. We will also be investigating reduced subscriptions to a number of other magazines in 2012 and will communicate further in this regard.

Click on the links below to download the selected digital copy of the magazine:

SUBSCRIBE FREE OF CHARGE TO A PRINTED COPY OF THE FINANCIAL PLANNER FOR 2012 BY COMPLETING THE ONLINE FORM BELOW.