From the Editor's Desk
Welcome to the new and improved Chain Store Age! We've changed the size of our magazine (yes, the pages are bigger — it's not your imagination), and updated the style and size of our type fonts with the goal of making CSA more reader-friendly and allowing us to incorporate more visuals going forward. We've also introduced a new logo, one that better reflects retailing's omnichannel environment.
Our print redesign is part of a larger update of CSA's brand identity that is reflected in our digital products as well. Our website is now incorporating more video — including, most recently, a terrific series of interviews with the nation's leading real estate developers that were conducted at the annual RECon show in Las Vegas — along with such regular features as Store of the Week and Hot Concepts.
CSA's e-newsletters have been revamped, with enhanced coverage and more photos. The daily has a new name, CSA DayBreaker, and the mix of news has been expanded to include technology coverage. Given the huge impact technology is having on every single aspect of the retail experience, we felt it crucial to incorporate technology into our daily news coverage. More than ever, DayBreaker is a must-read for busy retail executives who want to stay on top of the news and ahead of the competition. (And speaking of technology, veteran retail tech reporter Dan Berthiaume has joined our staff as a senior editor. Don't miss his TechBytes column online and his expanded tech coverage in print.)
Our real estate newsletter, SiteTalk, has been renamed OnSite, and our store planning & design, construction and facilities newsletter, SpecsTalk, is now called StoreSpaces. New, exciting features have been added to both. We've also changed the name of the corresponding sections in the magazine to reflect their digital counterparts.
We hope you like the changes, both to the magazine and our online products. As always, your feedback is very welcome!
It's hard to believe, but we've hit the mid-year point already! I thought it would be interesting to take a quick look back and see what articles initiated the most interest among our online readers. Here are chainstoreage.com's 10 most viewed stories of the year to date:
①Johnson out as CEO of J.C. Penney; Ullman back
②Retail Store of the Year: And the winners are…
③Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Retail ④13 Hot Trends for 2013
⑤Macy's to close six locations, open nine others
⑥Walmart in line to open 500 Neighborhood Market stores by fiscal 2016
⑦Reinventing Retail: Hointer, Seattle
⑧Dick's to open 40 stores in 2013 and debut Field & Stream format
❾Five Below to open 60 stores in 2013 and expand into Texas
⑩The J.C. Penney Debacle: Five Lessons Learned
It's not surprising that J.C. Penney bookends the list. From Ron Johnson's exit to Mike Ullman's swift return, the company remains the biggest and most fascinating story in retail. It will be interesting to see how the next six months play out. So here's a request for more feedback: After all that's happened so far, how do you think Penney fare going forward?