Over the past 20 years, technology has tsunamied publishing. Eâ''mail, the Internet, and desktop publishing, to name a few, have engulfed the industry. Virtually all print magaÂzines have had to redesign and realign themselves to withstand these tidal forces.
We’re no different. Our print redesign, introduced in this issue, forced us to think about all the ways we are—and will be—Âdelivering IEEE Spectrum’s stories to you.
What’s changed in print? On the graphics side, we’ve moved to an elegant design executed for us by Research Studios. The number of pages every month will remain about the same—but we hope to make better use of them. As you can tell, we like it. If you don’t, let us know.
On the content side, a new section in the front of the book called Update is full of shorter and punchier articles. More and more of these kinds of stories will be making their way to Spectrum Online (), where we can take advantage of the Web’s 24/7 timeliness and multimedia features like audio and video. Robert W. Lucky and Paul McFedries will move up to the front with Update, and the last page of the magazine will now be devoted to The Data, a monthly story that lends itself to statistical treatment. This month’s numbers reveal how statistics can be used to fuel different points of view on greenhouse-gas trends.
Spectrum Online will continue to be home to our blogs, podcasts, and videos. Over the coming year we are planning to add even more features for the practicing technologist—more Webinars, white papers, and the like—to help you keep up with developments and significant new tools.
There are lots of reports in the publishing world about the ongoing demise of print, and we think they’re greatly exaggerated. But we also know that Spectrum Online, the digital edition of Spectrum , our e-mail alerts, RSS feeds, and other editorial delivery platforms are critical to getting information to you whenever you want it, wherever you want it in this information-hungry age.
It’s clear that technology will continue to redefine publishing and the way we develop and share our ideas. Literate editors at today’s magazines must understand and work in many forms of media. Reading and writing are no longer enough. So as our digital content moves from media to media, from format to format, from device to device, we will move along with it.
What hasn’t changed? Our passionate commitment to bringing you the best and most important stories about success and failure in technological innovation is unwavering—as you will see when you turn to our Winners & Losers feature in this issue. We’ll keep you informed and amazed by developments springing up all around you. Occasionally, we might even surprise you with something you didn’t know about your own field.
You might be a print-loving digital immigrant who remembers a time when there was no Internet, and maybe no personal computer, and certainly no BlackBerry buzzing in your pocket. Or maybe you’re a digital native who can’t imagine life without a cellphone and T1 access who reads everything online. Either way, Spectrum will continue to bring you the ideas and inventions that are shaping our world.