A warm welcome to the July issue of Rotary Digital, which we have had a lot of fun ​writing and pulling together.

As you will have now figured out, Rotary Digital is published monthly whereas the ​print edition of Rotary Magazine is published quarterly in July, October, January ​and April.

This is one of those converged editions when we produce both a digital and print ​magazine in the same month. Normally, Rotary Digital runs to 25 pages, but in a ​converged month we extend the digital pagination to 35 pages so when added to ​the 84-page print magazine, that is a lot of editorial!

Ideally, we hope you will take the time to read – and later share with business ​colleagues, neighbours, friends and family – both the print and digital editions.

In the case of the quarterly converged edition, you will note that there are some ​stories which feature in both the print and digital issues. We do that so those ​Rotarians who choose not to have a print edition sent to their homes, get a ​digital issue as well.

And on that point, every month I receive a letters from Rotarians who prefer not ​to receive a printed copy of the magazine to save the planet.

I write back with a reminder that the carbon footprint of reading the magazine ​digitally is far greater than receiving a print copy using paper which has been ​sourced responsibly from forests which are being replenished.

But I digress. What you will read in the print edition of the magazine are “print ​exclusive” stories which you won’t find in the digital edition. Equally, for the ​converged edition of Rotary Digital, there are unique stories published in this ​format which you won’t read elsewhere.

What has been encouraging is the feedback for both print and digital has been ​extremely positive. Audience numbers for the digital magazine are significantly ​higher than for any content previously published online by Rotary Great Britain & ​Ireland.

Finally, you will have received an email last month from David Alexander, who is ​the Chief Communications Officer with Rotary International based in Evanston, ​inviting you to complete a survey about the magazine.

This survey is being run globally. Rotary Magazine for Great Britain & Ireland is ​the oldest regional Rotary magazine in the world – first published in 1915, and ​currently one of 33 licensed regional magazines.

The last time this survey was published was four years ago when more than ​4,000 Rotarians in Great Britain & Ireland responded. The results made for ​interesting reading with 75% of respondents saying they preferred print over ​digital. It will be interesting to see what that figure is now.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a great fan of answering surveys; they’re time-consuming, ​and I often wonder that’s the point – does my view really matter? Well it does ​here.

The online form should take about 8 minutes to complete, with your ​participation being both voluntary and confidential – though you will need to ​disclose that you are a reader of the Great Britain & Ireland magazine, as ​opposed to any of the other 32 titles.

This information will help me to make informed decisions going forward about ​our communications strategy. The information we gather will enable us to ​enhance reader experience, improve content quality, and compile the most ​useful Rotary news and stories for you.

I would really appreciate your feedback, and I promise to publish the Rotary ​GB&I results once they are released, most likely later this year. But for those ​results to have any significance, it’s important there is weight behind respondent ​numbers.

So please, to ensure that your magazine meets your needs and expectations, it ​would be great if you could complete the survey: Take Survey

Thank you!