The past 12 months have been a time of intense change – you don’t need me to tell you that. We’ve seen a change of administration in the US, UK and many more countries, military conflicts continue and the advent of Taylor Swift’s record-breaking world tour.
Here at IR Magazine, we’ve been able to see which issues are top of mind for our readers through our web traffic. You’ve been sending us some pretty clear messages.
For one, the top-read article of the year – by a considerable distance – was a piece titled ‘Blah blah blah, alphabet soup’, which was an interview with Alison Taylor, clinical professor at NYU Stern Business School. In it, she tells Garnet Roach about the many problems she sees with the state of ESG.
Tim Human also tried to answer the question of what a Trump presidency might mean for ESG disclosures. Many expect that, due to his second term, the SEC’s troubled and much delayed climate disclosure rules will not see the light of day, although US issuers will still need to boost their sustainability reporting due to Europe’s far-reaching CSRD.
In third place, the implications of the EU’s flagship regulation were examined in detail by Noemi Distefano in her piece that attempted to define the challenges, strategies and global impact of its implementation. Despite the subject matter, the article was so good that it won an award.
Shortly behind these pieces came our analysis of research into what a reduction in the Fed’s base interest rate could mean for growth and value stocks, according to Alex Lustig, a senior client consultant at Style Analytics.
Another crucial market dynamic became apparent in May, when research showed that institutional investors were boosting their cryptocurrency holdings. Bitcoin hit new record high prices in 2024, with an increasing number of ETFs and similar products offering even retail investors the chance for exposure to this evolving asset class.
A piece by IR Magazine’s former reporter Hemma Visavadia that was published in 2023 was also in our top 10, unsurprising as it set out some of the real-world benefits of using AI for IR. Many of those recommendations are still relevant today. An article about Robinhood’s decision to halt buying activity on GameStop stock in 2021 and a piece I wrote nearly a decade ago about the top seven questions to expect in an IR interview also ranked highly.
Fittingly for a profession that is all about the personal connections made with the investment community, two people stories were high among our most-read of the year. First was the news that European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell had appointed a new head of IR, after Tjerk Huysinga departed after 35 years at the company.
For me, one of the stories that will define 2024 was the sad passing of Lorne Gorber, senior adviser and Quebec lead at LodeRock and former head of IR at CGI, in July. We heard many heartfelt tributes from across the IR spectrum for the very highly regarded pillar of the Canadian community. ‘One of the brightest minds in the IR world’ is how Ed Miller, head of IR and account management, agency partnerships at Q4 and Gorber’s long-term colleague, put it.
What did you enjoy reading on IR Magazine in 2024? Let us know, either on LinkedIn or via email at [email protected].
Laurie Havelock
Laurie has been part of the IR Magazine team for more than a decade, starting out as a reporter and research editor before becoming editor in 2023. He was previously acting business editor at the i newspaper and deputy business editor at The Daily...
