AMessage from the Editor
Dear Reader,
Change is in the air. In just the past few months, this country has changed in ways many of us may not even begin to realize for years. What will become of our home values, our stock holdings, our net wealth? These times also have many people asking where exactly they fit in an economy in the throes of change. Is now the time to hunker down and stick with the status quo? Or is now the time to plot a new course?
At Retailing Today, our answer is the same as it’s been for more than four decades: Leaders embrace change. In the past, this has meant adapting to the shifting retail marketplace, including the rise of the discount channel in the early 1960s, the diversification of the retail marketplace in the 1980s and most recently, the dominance of high-volume, big-box retailing.
Today, we are capitalizing on shifts in the media business—with the goal of serving you even better. Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, Retailing Today will publish exclusively within the digital space.
This move to an online news and information service got started in earnest back in 1996, when we first launched an ambitious daily online news feed. And since then, the same readers who have always found value in our print product have come to appreciate the value of our digital delivery, including breaking news e-mail blasts, round-the-clock Web news, mobile-compatible newsletters and rich-media such as video, podcasts, RSS feeds and more.
Even more important, our advertisers—those who have always trusted our print reach—are experiencing a greater return thanks to the inherent quantifiable nature of digital delivery. Where we used to flaunt a print product with 100% direct written request, we now speak of tens of thousands of unique, monthly visitors and hundreds of thousands of monthly pages views and ad impressions.
The increased value that readers and advertisers are deriving from our digital portfolio underscores the fact that Retailing Today is moving into the all-digital space from a position of strength—further demonstrated by the fact that we provide advertisers with proof of R.O.I. by way of precise metrics of reader engagement, including traffic, impressions, clicks and more.
As confident as we are about this decision, we know that some readers will miss the print product. But nostalgia, in and of itself, is not a basis on which to build a business, or a marketing plan, for that matter. This industry wants more—it wants timely news in a measurable medium. In fact, it is insisting upon it.
Like all strategic decisions, this one will indeed involve change. Instead of talking of industry-leading reader-retention and pass-along rates, the conversation already has turned to unique, monthly visitors, total ad impressions, click-throughs and open rates. But one thing that has not changed: our values. True to our heritage, Retailing Today will continue to be the most relevant source of news and analysis of the U.S. retail marketplace.
Read the rest of the story at: http://www.RetailingToday.com/ForAdvertisers
Sincerely,
Tim Craig Editor in Chief/Associate PublisherRetailing Today