If you had to pick one (and only one) periodical that you subscribed to as a source of business information, news, and discussion, what would it be and why?
Best periodical for the CFO?
Answers
I read the Wall Street Journal daily. I think it is a great source of information.
The Economist is well-written and covers a lot.
I read Fortune. I like the writing style and in-depth articles.
Publications that provide information about industry you are in helps tremendously for trends.
I like the Economist, great for world news as well as business.
Twitter. If that seems an odd answer, have a look at what can be done with some of the tools available and a well thought out group of sources to follow. Nearly all of the other responses listed here have Twitter feeds and Twitter information is much more timely than a scheduled periodical. Twitter also gives you the opportunity to follow individual thought leaders in a practice area regardless of whether they have a regular column in a periodical.
Twitter is faster, easier to focus, more comprehensive and more mobile and efficient than any single periodical.
Hands down - Wall Street Journal
WSJ - it's the most comprehensive daily source of business news and information available. The Economist is excellent but because it's a weekly news magazine, it can't cover near the same amount of news as the WSJ. If you expand your question to two sources, I would consider either the Economist or Financial Times to supplement your WSJ subscription. Both add excellent international coverage.
WSJ - Too expensive, but worth it.
Their subscription department is terrible.
Fortune for the in-depth articles, background stories, etc. I still read Business Week, but long for the past before Bloomberg bought it. (hate their "new" graphics!)
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I agree that that WSJ's subscription department is horrible, probably the worst. If you let your subscription lapse for a month or so you can get a good deal.
Financial Times. It's expensive but, despite all of the free information we can get these days, I am happy to pay for high quality journalism and a broad view of international business, economics and politics.
I will add Inc. to the list. This is one of my favorite must read as it covers broad business issues from start ups to large growth companies with lots of CEO perspectives.
WSJ. I had a mentor when I first started my professional
As obvious as it may sound; I really appreciate CFO Magazine. I find the feature articles relevant to current trends and tend to be practical in nature. They cover the basics of accounting and tax, technology,
For me, it spans all of the functional areas and is very readable.
In addition, they have some reasonably good CE available through their webcasts.
I review several of the periodicals that have been mentioned. Another site that I review is MarketWatch.com.
The Economist covers a lot
BusinessWeek. Most relevant articles, best analyses, best writing.
Reading any one of the above is better that not reading. If your boss, CEO, CFO etc. reads a particular financial publication, that is the one I would read as well. Next an industry magazine and then one to keep up your core competency as CFO, Journal of Accountancy etc.
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Ron - Out of curiosity, why should someone read what their boss reads? I am not in disagreement with you, but I am not sure I totally agree.
My opinion, for what its worth, is that if your boss is the CFO and is reading WSJ, I need to be reading something else. It isn't that the WSJ is irrelevant to someone, but the company may benefit from them reading something else.
Bosses and employees could meet and collaborate over what they are reading. If an article is that important to the company or individual it could be shared with others at that point.
As an example: in my particular company, my boss reads CFMA's Building Profits. I read Construction Executive. Both have great articles that he and I share with one another when needed.
There are a lot of good publications out there, and some useless ones as well. I find that some of the better ones are Fortune,
Fortune, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal
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