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5 March, Cologne/Frankfurt – For the fourth time, IR.on AG, a consulting firm for investor relations and financial communications, has analyzed the media usage of investors and analysts in the small and mid-cap segment. The survey was conducted among 40 professionals, including 22 financial analysts with an accumulated research universe of 450 small and mid-caps and 18 investors with over EUR 6.3 billion in assets under management.
Handelsblatt scored particularly high among the respondents, with 55% of them spontaneously mentioning it as the medium regularly used for professional purposes, which means that the newspaper has the highest top-of-mind awareness of all media. Investors and analysts also confirmed that Handelsblatt has the greatest influence on their work. Börsen-Zeitung, winner of the last survey in 2016, ranks second in both categories this time. In terms of quality, however, Börsen-Zeitung remains the number one among Germany’s financial and business print media.
On balance, print dailies have lost relevance, while online formats have gained importance compared to 2016. Handelsblatt is also at the forefront of the digital world, with its website handelsblatt.com most frequently used by investment professionals. The quality leader, however, is small and mid-cap specialist boersengefluester.de. Although it has a lower awareness in the market, it is the only online medium to achieve a very good rating among its users. Among the online financial portals, finanznachrichten.de performs best in terms of quality. As in the 2016 survey, onvista.de is used most frequently.
Given that investors and analysts need to gather and process information very quickly, news agencies and their services remain the most important media category for this group, even ahead of online formats. 62.5% of the respondents use paid terminal solutions. As in the previous surveys, Bloomberg is again the most popular provider. While FactSet makes second place, the once renowned Reuters data service (now: Refinitiv Eikon) has clearly lost relevance, according to the survey.
Business and investor magazines are gaining influence. Der Aktionär is rated as particularly influential in the small and mid-cap segment, although the magazine performs below average in terms of quality. According to the respondents, high-quality content is delivered by Manager Magazin, which leads the business magazine ranking for the fourth consecutive time. Nebenwerte Journal, a niche medium, also scores good ratings.
Social media usage among investors and analysts focuses on the professional networks LinkedIn and Xing, which are used regularly by 59% of the respondents, with LinkedIn preferred in terms of quality.
“For small and mid-caps, it is generally more difficult than for blue chips to attract the attention of the financial and business media,”
says Martin Grünter, a consultant with IR.on AG and author of the study.
But the growing diversity and differentiation in the financial and business media landscape offers opportunities for greater awareness. Specialty media with a focus on niche segments have established themselves with investors and analysts, cleverly filling gaps in the information supply.”
Fabian Kirchmann, CEO of IR.on AG:
“German small and mid-cap investors and analysts still attach great importance to financial and business media for their day-to-day work. While they are generally satisfied with the available information, they would like to see a little more depth, such as numbers-based analyses, and expect editors to show greater financial expertise. Trends such as increased social media usage or the automated AI-based generation of news or analytics having so far little significance for their work.”
IR.on AG’s complete 2020/21 Media Study is available free of charge here.
About IR.on AG
IR.on AG is an independent consulting firm for investor relations and financial communications. The experienced team of consultants assists companies of all sizes in the development of investor relations strategies, day-to-day IR activities, as an interim IR manager, in capital market transactions and special situations such as crises or restructuring exercises, as well as press relations with the financial and business media. Headquartered in Cologne and Frankfurt am Main, the owner-managed company was established in 2000. The consultants at IR.on AG combine experience from more than 400 communication projects, over 300 annual and quarterly reports and around 100 capital market transactions, including a large number of acquisitions, IPOs and bond issues.
Contact
IR.on Aktiengesellschaft
Martin Grünter
+49 221 9140-970
martin.gruenter(at)ir-on.com
