By William J. Hayes, Managing Editor - Pennsylvania CPA Journal

The Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) recently conducted a survey of its members to gauge satisfaction with the organization’s flagship publication, the Pennsylvania CPA Journal. We learned quite a bit about the things that we do well and some things that we need to improve upon. But first let’s talk about the response.

Maybe it’s because we sent it out in the middle of a fairly large blizzard and snowed-in members were glad to do something other than monitor the amount of powder piling up outside their residences, but we received 701 responses. This is a strong number. For comparison, we received 306 responses to our previous Pennsylvania CPA Journal survey conducted in 2011. As we proceed with any renovations, we know that we have a fair view of our membership’s perspectives. It also proves that a $50 Amazon gift card has a certain allure (Congrats to winner Kathleen Dunham).

We received responses from all 11 PICPA chapters, as well as 22 nonresident members. The Greater Philadelphia Chapter checked in with the highest number of respondents (39 percent), with Pittsburgh and South Central both checking in at 14 percent. The survey also had a balanced response rate among the ages of membership. Members age 51 to 65 represented 33 percent of respondents, while members 35 and under checked in with 31 percent. Members from the ages 36 to 50 made up 25 percent of respondents, while those over 65 registered 11 percent. Among the other demographics, 58 percent of respondents were male and the top two respondent groups in terms of employment type were public accounting (49 percent) and corporation/industry (30 percent).

Now to the findings. First and most importantly, it is clear that membership finds the magazine to be an important PICPA benefit. Ninety-three percent of respondents answered either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” to the benefit statement. When asked for additional opinion, 95 percent of the respondents answered either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” to the statement “The visual appearance of the Journal is quite appealing.” When asked to tell us how many issues per year they read, 55 percent stated all four while 14 percent said that they peruse three of the four. To the 25 percent of the group who said that they read either one or two issues per year, we understand. You are busy people.

When it comes to the magazine’s content, we asked members to let us know which columns they prefer, which PICPA News sections they like, and what information they think we should be featuring more of. Tax is king among our membership, as 47 percent of the respondents said that they always read the Federal Tax column and 41 percent said the same about State & Local Tax. Also registering high marks were the columns Business & Industry (37 percent), Personal Financial Planning (35 percent), and Accounting & Assurance (35 percent). Of course, once you rank the best performers, you also get a glimpse at the stragglers. Sixty-one percent of our readers said that they never read our Natural Gas column, while 58 percent said the same about International Tax and 48 percent pay no mind to Practice Succession Planning. The latter two are new columns that were established at our Editorial Board meeting in May 2015. Both likely need more time to appropriately gauge the audience.

As you read through the magazine and get toward the back, you will find PICPA News. This section has more PICPA-centric stories. When asked about this coverage, 44 percent of respondents stated that they always read Legislative News and 30 percent said the same about Member Recognitions. On the other hand, 29 percent stated that they never read Image Enhancement and 21 percent leave Volunteers in Action unexamined.

After measuring readership of what is currently in the magazine, we then sought to figure out what topics our readers would like to see more coverage of. We identified five hot topics – Agribusiness, Interpersonal Skills, Public Speaking, Technology, and Women in Accounting – and Technology was the clear winner, with 94 percent of surveyed readership stating that they either strongly or somewhat agree with the idea of seeing more of it in the magazine. In fact, four out of the five received greater than 20 percent combined strongly or somewhat agree responses. The one topic that seemingly can stay on the back burner for now is Agribusiness (only 5 percent strongly agreed that we need to run more).

One of the things we clearly need to do better is letting people know about the Pennsylvania CPA Journal’s digital magazine and mobile app. So that effort starts here. Let’s talk about the numbers. Fifty-eight percent of respondents stated that they were not aware of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal digital magazine. A whopping 82 percent of respondents stated that they were not aware of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal mobile app. The idea of preferring to read the magazine on paper is not a problem. Sixty-two percent of respondents stated that the paper magazine is their preferred reading format, while 76 percent said print is their preferred format for PICPA information in general. There is nothing wrong with that, and we are proud to continue supplying your preferred format to you. But the digital magazine and mobile app questions were not about preference, but rather awareness.

To repeat, 82 percent of respondents said they were not aware of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal mobile app. So I figured I would take this time to say, “Hey, we have a mobile app!” It has a tremendous look that closely replicates the feel of looking at the paper magazine. It features back issues going back to winter 2010, and each issue features video and audio bonuses, such as our Beyond the Copy video series, spotlights on members, and podcasts that go in to detail with journal authors for some extra insight. We have gone to great lengths to make sure that no matter your preference in reading device, no one is left out: it is available for iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8. Oh, and it’s free. You should check it out, not because it might help bring that 82 percent unaware number down to a more respectable figure, but because we think it is a valuable tool that adds to your membership and reading experience. Consider, too, that the digital versions make it much easier to share an article with colleagues and clients.

We’re ecstatic about the response to this survey, not only because it allows us to see what we are doing right for our membership, but also because it tells us where we need to improve. We thank all the respondents and pledge that we will use the information to create an even better version of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal going forward.