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fDi magazine (Foreign Direct Investment) is published by the Financial Times
group and is global in scope. It focuses on global business location
strategy and investment project planning issues facing C-level executives
(CEO, CFO, and VPs of corporate development and strategic planning), mostly
(85%) at firms with over 500 employees. |
fDi is not an advertorial magazine or one which simply reproduces and
distributes whatever the advertisers want to say about their business
locations or services. There are some opportunities to contribute
useful articles as an alternative to pages of advertising, but within basic
constraints to protect the integrity of the Financial Times brand. |
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In this context, it can be relatively ineffective to routinely broadcast
minor press releases at the fDi research staff or Editor. Given the
pressures of producing FT-quality research work every month about locations
all over the world (including the USA as a major source and destination of
investment projects), press releases which do not seem to be very relevant
to fDi's editorial coverage are likely to be ignored. |
One such option is to do a 2 to 4 page "Spotlight" presentation,
typically as a combination of an ad and related content such as an executive
summary about a business location or service followed by a well-written
article which elaborates on this summary. In effect, the ad helps to
attract attention, the summary arouses interest, and the article elaborates
on the interesting story for that topic in more detail. |
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better approach is to think carefully about why fDi readers should be very
interested in your story, and then send a succinct
e-mail to the Editor which, in effect, sells the relevance of your
story to fDi readers and outlines key points such as actionable market
insights which should interest them for their own growth plans. If
this arouses interest, the editor can readily follow-up or task a writer to
the story. A simple link to any related press release or background is
helpful. |
The "Spotlight" presentations can also be produced as "online-only" services
at a much lower cost than placement in the magazine.
These show up through the fDi website the same
way, and can be linked or downloaded in a .pdf format like an article in the
magazine, but don't involve the higher print production and distribution
costs. |
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Unlike some magazines in this niche market, most of the content in fDi
magazine is developed through independent research work of the high quality
which readers expect of any Financial Times publication. The content
is not simply a compilation of recent press releases or stories contributed
by advertisers. This is professional journalism to interest C-level
readers, rather than a direct mail advertising product. |
Another option is to do an "fDi
Atlas" presentation about a business location. These are
structured in a consistent way worldwide, and can be easily prepared and
updated directly on the fDi website through a password-protected account to
set up and edit these pages at any time as an annual online service product.
The fDi Atlas is advertised very prominently as a business location research
tool for executives. |
