We’ve made some changes

Some of our eagle-eyed readers have noticed that we’ve made some changes to the FCPA Blog’s editorial content since the start of the year. Here’s an explanation of the changes we’ve made and how they impact the most important people: our readers.

The aim of the FCPA Blog has always been to provide the absolute best content we can. We want you to read the FCPA Blog with confidence, knowing the editorial team is taking every step to ensure you aren’t being pitched a third-party product.

For authors, this means updated submission guidelines and lower rates of publication. We think that’s the best way for our authors to stand out and be recognized for their generous contributions to the FCPA Blog. If you’ve published with us in the past, or hope to in the future, we’ve updated our guidelines that will apply to all submissions. 

Anyone who has been around the compliance industry for a while knows that it has changed dramatically. The changes have been especially noticeable in the past year or so.

A lot of the changes are attributable to the FCPA and laws like it becoming more important to companies everywhere and of all sizes. That’s a good thing. 

Along with that, FCPA-related practices at many law firms and service providers are now a significant focus. Compliance is a big business. And, with the shift to working from home and the general upheaval in the economy, compliance-related marketing has turned digital, and is coming now in bigger and bigger waves. The noise level in the industry has never been louder.

There are numerous law and compliance-related sites today that offer pay-to-play submissions, sponsored content, or republication of press releases. Marketing departments, understandably, are taking full advantage of those opportunities. Those sites may have value in their own right, but that type of publishing is not and has never been the FCPA Blog’s mission.

Our aim has always been to publish unique content that somehow advances the conversation. So, for example, we’ve always assumed that everyone reading the FCPA Blog knows that third-party screening and due diligence can help a company reduce risk. That means we don’t need to publish posts saying that. 

The FCPA Blog’s editors have been flooded recently with “content marketing” submissions from professional firms and service providers. Some of the content marketing has been subtle, some of it clubs you over the head. We’ve also seen an increased number of submissions with trackable links (that we always remove) and other marketing tactics intended to gain an advantage over competitors. Again, that’s understandable. But we don’t think that approach is fair to our readers. That’s why there are no sponsored posts on the FCPA Blog.

About sponsorship — we’re incredibly thankful for various organizations that support our work. Many of them have been with us for years, some since the beginning. We encourage you to click on their banners and explore their offerings. They are industry leaders in every sense. 

You may still see references in posts to FCPA Blog sister publications and products. If you’re curious as to what those are, you can browse them here.

As the compliance industry grows and changes, the FCPA Blog wants to continue to be authentic. In a way, we are sticking with the basics, to the spirit that infused the FCPA Blog when it began publishing 14 years ago.

We thank you for reading the FCPA Blog, and we look forward to publishing more thoughtful, practical, engaging, and groundbreaking content.