Rebalancing our offering to you
18 April 2024

When I took up the role of chief executive in 2012, the world looked very different. CNN describes 2012 as the ‘year of the reboot’, when ‘older established tech companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Nintendo all tried to restart their brands with bold new products and fresh blood in the executive suites’.

And it was the start of radical change for MRS. We closed the monthly Research magazine, doubled down on digital, and launched a new quarterly called Impact. The vision was to focus on the outcomes of research; the business growth and real-world impact. The magazine won awards.

With the arrival of Covid, MRS didn’t shut down – we threw resources into helping the sector and pivoted to take all of the organisation’s services online. As a result, we reached new audiences and strengthened our global connections.

MRS saw growth as the country came back from the chasm of the pandemic and celebrated the biggest ever MRS Awards night in 2023. So, is it business as usual in 2024?

MRS is again rebalancing our offering: the July issue of Impact magazine will be the last.

We have not come to this decision lightly, or based it on any single factor. Clearly, the era of mass print publications is coming to an end and is less sustainable, environmentally and financially.

Meanwhile, Research Live has been growing around the world, reaching more than 28,000 unique users every month, and with more than 60,000 followers across social media.

Our US readership is now as large as that in the UK (around 35% each), with the rest of the audience predominantly from India and Southeast Asia.

With such an international audience on Research Live, we have, as you might expect, been thinking: what can we do better? (not what can we stop doing)

Investing in digital is an investment in the benefits of membership, and our intention is to take our best content into a more dynamic, digital context, and make it work better for you, our members. Too often I have heard people say ‘Oh I wish I’d known about that special report you published last quarter’. 

In this era of digital noise, MRS needs to respond to how members want to access and consume our content. But print is no longer a reliable means for us to get that content into your hands when you need it.

Our new Global Leadership Academy is another manifestation of this intent.

So while Impact magazine will discontinue, we will be reviewing our content offering to members and the wider sector, ensuring that it builds on our commitment to quality editorial and member value.  An archive of the case studies from the magazine will continue to be available on Research Live, and you can expect to see some very exciting changes on Research Live next year...

Impact magazine has made a major contribution to the revitalising of the MRS brand: it has delighted and instructed; it has been a standard bearer for B2B publishing, and was awarded as such.

I have every intention of taking that spirit into the future.

If you have any queries about this announcement please don't hesitiate to contact MRS on info@mrs.org.uk