Economia – Accountants can be interesting….sometimes.

Economia is the industry magazine for Chartered Accountants. Yes, that is generally a ‘yawn’ statement in its own right, but bear with, bear with….

This is a professionally-produced magazine with some very well designed articles. However, when accountancy firms submit their own articles (such as in ‘Sponsored Features’), the difference in quality can be very stark indeed….let’s have a look at the most recent issue.

The bad

‘KMPG – Getting Ready for the Brave New World of Audit’ (p44)

This was a Sponsored Article provided by KMPG in which they gathered the thoughts of various experts on pre-posed questions.

Analysis

• Title & sub-titles – boring title, no sub-titles
• Big blocks of text – no highlighting, bold, italics….in short nothing to break up long paragraphs
• No flow or theme – Just seven or eight ‘headings’ such as ‘Technology and Audit’s Shifting Role’ with three or four KMPG expert statements underneath each one; no ‘voice’, no linking, no narrative
• No conclusion or summary – just a laborious introduction

The good

‘With a clearer path comes a Brighter Future’ (p48)

This was an Editorial celebrating the 50th issue of Economia, summarising the 50 most interesting changes in the accounting profession since its launch.

Analysis

• Eye-catching layout – a 3-4 column layout with each column being formatted to catch the eye, either with a differently-sized number (remember, this was a 1-50 article) or an image, or an offset header/footer
• Great shout-out quotes – “If the auditors were the dogs that didn’t bark in 2008….”
• Judicious highlighting – keywords picked out in larger font bold red text

Don’t let me just be the judge though….what do you reckon?