The other day I was surprised to run into my old boss, the editor in chief of the daily newspaper I went to work for when I was fresh out of college. Unlike most journalists, who burn out on the daily deadline after a few years and ultimately find refuge in the world of magazine journalism, this woman has stuck it out for almost 30 years. I give her a lot of credit.
Needless to say, a lot has changed in print journalism in three decades, but I think it's safe to say the most dramatic changes have taken place over the past 10 years or so. Some of the biggest changes have come about as a result of the Internet and what it has meant to those of us who build our life's work around the printed word.
So when my editor and I were catching up, I asked how she feels about handling the newspaper's website and where she thinks it's going. Like most of us who were born before 1980, there's a bit of a learning curve where all things electronic are concerned. Ultimately, however, we both agreed that Internet journalism is the future. It's not that printed newspapers and magazines are going to go away - not at all - but there's just no denying that today's readers are getting more and more of their information while they sit in front of their computer.
At Rental Product News, we've put considerable effort and resources into building a web presence for our magazine that delivers what our readers want. It's also one of our top priorities to drive traffic to our website by promoting it within the pages of our magazine. One of the ways we'll begin doing this is by including a graphic at the end of our articles that will direct readers to our website where you will find additional information about the subjects you read about in the magazine. You'll also see that we're including more feature articles on the web that speak directly to the mission of Rental Product News, which of course, is still the application, selection and maintenance of the equipment in your inventory.
It's a work in progress, so there will be tweaks and improvements to our website as we move forward. We have a lot of exciting things planned. So please visit www.rentalproductnews.com. Do it now, do it often.
Our enthusiasm for our website does not mean we're taking the focus off the printed magazine. In fact, as you can see from the pages of this issue, we've redesigned Rental Product News. Our goal is to create a look that is easy to read and attractive to the eye. It is our hope that you'll find the improvements to our layout and design to be a positive change.
As my old boss and I said goodbye to each other, we agreed that change is inevitable, but if faced boldly and with a positive attitude, it can almost always result in improvement.
