May 10, 2010— With the first quarter of the year over, and the first round of Spring trade shows under our belts, we here at Printing News thought it was time to share a little news of our own. Over the past six months, we’ve been working hard on a new online system that we began rolling out last month. It’s exciting for us, and we think you’re going to like it a lot, too.

First of all, we now have a searchable, comprehensive online Buyers’ Guide—www.myprintresource.com. But unlike other guides in the market, we wanted to bring something new and different to the table so you, our readers, would be able to find what you needed when you needed it.

To accomplish that, we decided to combine resources with our two sister publications;—Wide-Format Imaging and Quick Printing—so instead of three separate guides, we have one combined resource. We decided to do it this way because so many of the companies in our industry overlap. They might have different divisions that handle different segments, but at the end of the day, they’re all under one umbrella. By combining our efforts, we can bring you a much more comprehensive overview of the products and news from these companies, and with the staff of three magazines working on it instead of just one, we can get more, and more detailed, information to you.

The second thing that we’re excited about in this new guide is that it’s not just a listing. We’re not putting up contact information and a few categories and calling it a day. Instead, we’ve designed it so every press release we receive from a company is linked to its listing—so you can see what’s new and exciting just by checking out one page. We have big plans to expand the types of information we include on these pages as well, so stay tuned for even more information as we move forward. To whet your appetite and keep you checking back, one of the things we’re working on and hope to have up by the end of the year is not just the press releases we receive, but links to every mention of that company, anywhere in print or online, in any of the three publications, all listed in one place on that company’s landing page.

The last big piece is something you might have already noticed in the past few issues of Printing News. Instead of offering links directly to the companies we cover here in the magazine, we’ll be offering links to their landing page in our new guide. We decided to do this for a few reasons. First, most companies today have a home page that’s built to encompass everything they do, and appeal to everyone who might stop by. Our landing pages, however, are geared specifically to this market. Second, where you might have to hunt for information on that new product you saw in PN on the company’s own home page, on our site, we’ll have the full press release with details linked right there, along with a form you can quickly fill out to get more information. We’ll ensure that goes directly to someone who can help you, as opposed to just sending it to a general e-mail address that might receive hundreds, if not more, inquiries a day. We want to make it quick and easy for you to get the information you’re looking for, and then offer you a way to find out even more without any of the hassle.

We’re very excited about this new service, and we hope you like it as much as we do. I encourage you to visit the links you’ll find throughout the magazine, to check out the new landing pages, and then poke around a bit while you’re there. And I’d love to hear your feedback since we want this to be about making your life easier, and we can’t fix what’s wrong or improve on what’s already working if we don’t hear from you. Thanks for being a loyal reader, and I’m looking forward to being a part of your business even as the industry changes and grows. It’s an exciting time to be a printer, and we’re proud to be one of your resources!

-Toni McQuilken, Editor, toni@printingnews.com