Advisors and journalists: taking on challenges together

Brokers, advisors, firms: you have all surely pondered your future in 2019, as you have done over the past few years. In 2020, the stakes will be even higher.

Changes have multiplied at an accelerated pace. No industry segments are unscathed. My colleagues bring you the latest developments daily on the Insurance Portal, the new Web platform run by The Insurance Journal Publishing Group.

Even sectors that seemed stagnant have embarked on transformation processes and new approaches. For example, Sun Life realigned its business, Intact bought a disaster recovery firm and Great-West Lifeco announced the amalgamation of its insurers!

Then there is our own transformation.

Face change head on!

The Insurance Journal Publishing Group which owns the Insurance Portal and the Portail de l’assurance, as well as the magazines Insurance Journal and Journal de l’assurance, have taken a huge stride forward!

The media industry is in crisis, as is the role of advisor. In this context, we needed to make a choice: keep our traditional model in place or break with the past and reinvent our methods. I chose the second option, true to my entrepreneurial spirit.

Backed by the whole team, we have innovated. First, we revamped our print magazines, starting in October 2018, with two guidelines in mind: 

• To focus on publishing in-depth articles, analyses enriched with data and charts, along with extensive research features. This unique content is designed to be a valuable sales tool to fuel your growth.
• To stop posting our print magazine content on our websites because it is read more effectively on paper. Several media outlets around the world have also made this transition.

We have also reimagined our digital offering. We have transformed our popular sites, which were launched 4 years ago: between 70,000 and 85,000 of you visited our sites each month to read our scoops and news articles.

These sites have now evolved into the Insurance Portal and the Portail de l’assurance. Powered by leading-edge technology, the portals deliver new services that meet the needs you expressed in our surveys.

What’s more, our new Portals offer a higher level of information and services available by subscription: the PRO level.

Specially designed for professionals and executives, the PRO level delivers daily content about all types of industry influences, to spur your growth, sales and business!

A PRO subscription gives you access to:

• Breaking news published daily;
• A subscription to the print version of Insurance Journal, which includes original content not available on the web;
• Exclusive access to PRO-level articles on our two Portals (English and French);
• Reports found only on the Portals, presented each month;
• Supplements to the print magazines, posted only on the web;
• News about executive-level appointments;
• News about disciplinary sanctions

Amidst all these transformations, we continue to deliver:

• Our daily bulletin including news items accessible for free;
• An alert service based on keywords of your choice. Get notified when an article is published that matches subjects and companies of interest to you;
• Electronic bulletins. Customize the content and frequency to suit your needs!

Thank you for stepping up!

Impressively, hundreds of you have already subscribed to the Pro level of our new Portal, which was just launched this fall. This is convincing proof of the professionalism of the industry and its members. 

Thank you for getting on board! Rest assured that we will make every effort to ensure that this investment is the most profitable one of your career.

Serge Therrien

President and publisher

The Insurance Journal Publishing Group