In the magazine business, summer is the time of strategysessions, when we crank up the AC, seal ourselves in our officesand take a step back to look at the big picture and to chart ourcourse for the next year—and beyond. 

At NU, the month ofAugust is when we plan our editorial calendars for the followingyear, dusting off our crystal balls to see what will be the hotissues in December of 2012: Coverage for second homes on Mars? Notyet. Coverage for space tourism? A definite maybe. Who wins theelection in November? We wouldn't want to spoil it for you.

Summer is also when the editorial side of the masthead getstogether with our friends on the business side to discuss wherewe'd like the magazine to be a year from now, two years, fiveyears.

As you might guess, if you've followed at all the interestingtimes in which the media sector currently lives, a lot of ourconversation centers around what should be the proper role for aprint newsweekly two years into the second decade of the 21stCentury.    

The ultimate subject of these talks, of course, is you, thereader of NU (and participant at our webinars, attendee atour events, listener of our podcasts, retweeter of our tweets andviewer of our videos): How do you want to get yourbusiness-critical information, and how do we best allocate ourcontent menu to give you a meal both nutritious and tasty?

Naturally, we conduct reader surveys, and we're speaking withmany of you all the time on the phone, in person (and on Facebook).But here's an open invitation to the entire readership/viewershipto tell us how we can serve you best. It's the most-opportune timefor your voice to be heard: We're at the forge for the next fewweeks, so strike while the iron is hot and you can truly help usshape the form of the publication going forward.

Are there types of content you want more of or less of? ShouldNU, for example, have Claims stories in every issue?Technology? Workers' Comp? 

How are you managing your news diet these days? Is yourconsumption completely electronic and dependent on the web, RSSfeeds and e-newsletters? Or do you welcome a roundup in print ofthe week's top stories?

What about the length of our feature stories? Too long? Tooshort? Do you want more and bigger photographs and graphics? Or areyou a text junkie?

If you spend any time in the back pages of our print magazine—orin the blog area of PropertyCasualty360.com—you know we warmlywelcome contributions from our audience (kudos to Burns &Wilcox and law firm Duane Morris for their meaty columns in thisissue—who knew NU would ever publish the “F” word?).

Well, you're all experts in something (and many of you are starsin multiple subjects). So if we gave you the tools to quickly andeasily share information with us—and, more important, with eachother—would you rush to use them, whether to share a new solutionyou've discovered or to inform the community of your promotion—orto ask your peers for their perspective on a problem?  

These aren't rhetorical questions—they're ones, in allfrankness, we're wrestling with as the summer starts its inevitablefade into fall. NU is your pub—so join in the dialogueabout what it should be in 2012. 

Bryant Rousseau

Editor in Chief
201-526-2329/[email protected]