The Distinction Between SMI Newsletter
and Web Content

Q: I'd like to follow Sector Rotation, but am not a web member. Could you start reporting on it in the print newsletter?

A: SMI's content offerings have expanded significantly over the past several years as we've introduced several "advanced" topics and strategies. Four years ago, with the redesign of the SMI website, we formalized a strategic decision regarding our presentation of content between the SMI newsletter and website.

Initially, we had presented most of this new content in the newsletter as well as online. What we found was the "core" SMI material was often overshadowed by the newer, more advanced material. This wasn't generally a problem for veteran readers, but was a significant problem for newer readers and investors.

As a result, we made a conscious decision to keep the newsletter focused primarily on the core SMI messages: the Four Levels process, proper portfolio construction and allocation, Just-the-Basics, Upgrading, and so forth. All of our "advanced" material would be kept separate on the website, including topics like Sector Rotation, Enhanced Just-the-Basics, Annual Seasonality, Trend Analysis, and other advanced topics we regularly discuss in the Editors' Weblog. This would allow readers who need or want to focus on SMI's core teachings to do so without being confused or distracted by advanced topics, and those who wanted the more advanced articles could easily get them online.

This decision also involved a financial concession. SMI is a for-profit business, but we've always treated it as a ministry as well. Part of that means trying to make it available to as many people as possible. To accomplish this, we keep our base subscription price well below the industry average: our annual subscription costs just $79, while the average investment newsletter costs more than $200. That's a huge difference. The easy path would be to bundle SMI website access with the newsletter and charge everyone more. That's what most publishers do. But we decided to make web membership a separate, optional feature. We do this so only those who want the extra features pay for them, keeping the core newsletter as inexpensive as possible.

It's true we've included some "advanced" topics in the print newsletter recently. We're not trying to tease print-only readers. Rather, we just want to make them aware these topics exist. Prior to the recent articles, we hadn't written extensively about Sector Rotation  in the print newsletter since we launched the strategy in November of 2003. We've had thousands of new subscribers join since then. Same with the "Bear Alert Indicator"  discussed in Beating the Bear Market Blues . The bottom line is we're trying to walk the "simplicity vs. depth" tightrope as well as possible. For more information regarding the focus of the SMI newsletter vs. website, see Clarifying the Focus of SMI's Newsletter and Website.

• Clarifying the Focus of SMI's Newsletter and Website
• Beating the Bear Market Blues
• SMI Advanced Strategies page

• Got a question or comment about this article? Discuss it on our Message Boards.