SmartMoney: Three Years of Success

SmartMoney celebrated its third birthday on March 13. In the past year, the magazine's Moscow readership rose by 15.5 percent per issue, and the entire readership for a single issue in Moscow and St. Petersburg approached 63,000 people.* Subscriptions grew by 41 percent during the past year, surpassing 22,000 people.

The SmartMoney weekly adopted a new design on December 1, 2008. The magazine also introduced new columns that are pertinent to the global financial crisis. They include: "The Stock Market," "The Economist's Column," "The Financial Consultant's Column" and "Portfolio." According to the magazine's editorial director, Tatiana Lysova, the redesign was necessary so that "the magazine's structure and look corresponded as much as possible with its content and with the expectations of business publication readers. At the same time, the magazine had to remain attractive, current and convenient for readers. The first section of the magazine will be completely dedicated to current events and news," Lysova said. Now it is possible to state confidently that the goal has been achieved.

During its three years of existence, SmartMoney has managed to attract a high-quality business readership. The magazine is read by the most progressive and dynamic members of the business community - young managers at various levels who are at the most productive stage of their lives, and who are building their careers in major Russian and Western companies. Some 73.9 percent of readers have high incomes, and 72.7 percent are specialists and managers at various levels.**

Under the SmartMoney brand, the "Investors' Academy" will continue developing this year in a new, expanded format. The first "Investors' Academy" was launched in the spring of 2008. As part of the academy program, five conferences were held in 2008 attended by 297 participants. Seven conferences are planned for the academy in 2009 and up to 500 participants are expected to attend, including private investors, company directors and market regulators. Now each session will consist of two parts: The first will be a roundtable of experts discussing current market conditions and macroeconomic processes; the second will be a Q&A session, a practical seminar for making optimal investment decisions in the current market environment.

The magazine's editors and staff do not plan to rest on their laurels. They will develop existing projects and generate new ones, directed primarily at making the magazine more popular and earn even greater loyalty from existing readers while attracting new ones. As before, a special issue will be published each month dedicated to the most topical questions in business and economics.

* Source: TNS Russia, NRS Moscow, St. Petersburg, September 2008 - February 2009.
** Source: TNS Russia, NRS Moscow, St. Petersburg, May - October 2008.