Accountancy Parts Ways With ICAEW

Accountancy Magazine have announced that they will relaunch the magazine in January 2012 to widen access to accounting and finance professionals, and that the 10 year contract with the ICAEW will end.

Cathy Wolfe, CEO of Wolters Kluwer UK, says:

"The strong growth of Wolters Kluwer's digital publishing means that we see a great future for Accountancy magazine on multiple platforms. We plan to take the journal in new directions, to meet the evolving needs of accountants and a wider group of finance professionals.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The relaunch will follow the ending of the current 10-year contract under which Accountancy has been published by CCH as the official journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. This publishing association is ending by mutual agreement, allowing Wolters Kluwer and ICAEW each to pursue their respective publishing plans.

At the same time, Wolters Kluwer is in discussion with ICAEW to identify areas where we will continue to work together."

This gives rise to a few interesting questions:

1 Given that the magazine will no longer be the official journal of the ICAEW, may we now expect more critical articles about the the ICAEW as from next year?

2 Does this mean that the ICAEW members will no longer be forced to pay for the magazine, and may in fact have their annual subscriptions reduced? I guarantee we will see no reduction in membership subscriptions (even if the magazine is no longer sent out to the membership)!

3 Are the ICAEW going to launch their own magazine, if so at what cost to the membership?

Re questions 2 & 3, here is part of the answer (as per the ICAEW site)

"From February 2012, PCP will take over a suite of existing ICAEW communications reaching over 156,000 members and students in the UK and internationally. PCP will build a significant publishing team that will be responsible for eight different member and student magazines and linked website channels. As part of the agreement, PCP will also be launching a new magazine, in print, digital and online formats, that will be provided free of charge to ICAEW Chartered Accountants, students and affiliates.

Robin Fieth, Executive Director of ICAEW said “Our tender process began at the end of 2010 and involved many leading publishing groups and customer publishing agencies. PCP offered us a unique and innovative solution to develop our publications in a way that will help drive forward our brand and reinforce ICAEW as a world leader of the accountancy and finance profession – they were a natural agency to partner with.”

Dan Davey, Managing Director of PCP said “To win a long-term, multi-million pound contract with a superbrand such as ICAEW in our first year is testament to the unparalleled opportunity that we, as part of the Progressive group of companies, can offer clients. It was clear right from the start of the tender process that ICAEW and PCP, together, could build a market-leading proposition that will set a new standard in business-to-business and membership communication.”

Factoid: The new magazine is not "free" (despite what the ICAEW says), the costs of publication and delivery are built into the annual ICAEW subscription (whether or not the member actually wants the magazine).

It will be interesting to see if the new magazine suffers the same fate as Accountancy currently suffers in the hands of many of the members of the ICAEW, namely being cast into the bin still in its plastic wrapper.

Breaking Ranks?

Citywire reports that the ICAEW plans to "break ranks" with fellow accredited bodies and offer statements of professional standing (SPS) to advisers who make a one-off payment rather than requiring them to join as members.

The ICAEW has applied to be an accredited body, and expects to be approved by the Financial Services Authority in December 2011.

Other accredited bodies, such as the Institute of Financial Planning and Chartered Insurance Institute, want advisers to be members in order to be issued with a SPS.

Vernon Soare, ICAEW executive director of professional standards, said:

"They won't have to be a member.

They just need to register with an accredited body, they pay a registration fee and we do a review of continual professional development."

The proposal has generated a fair amount of heated "debate".

However, so long as the ICAEW's "certification process" does not get dragged through the mud by a conman (a certificate does not make a man/woman a "professional"), it does not seem to be an unreasonable proposal.