NUs Evolution

A little less than three years ago, NationalUnderwriter relaunched as a weekly newsmagazine. The dynamicnew format replaced our century-old newspaper-style front page witha more modern cover story approach, calling attention to thein-depth trend stories and analyses we feature to help readers makesense of the developments that shape the market.

Still, we maintained our leadership position in breaking news.Indeed, we increased our news production exponentially with thehelp of the Web and our hardworking staff, posting original storieseach day at www.NationalUnderwriter.com.We then put the most important breaking news of the week intoperspective in the early pages of our print weekly.

The feedback from readers about our relaunch was overwhelminglypositive. But we are not ones to rest on our laurels.

We continue NU's evolution with the enhanced designunveiled in this edition. Our goal is to help readers get a quickergrasp of the most important news stories breaking each week, aswell as being able to tell at a glance the key points of coverstories and trend features by using more explanatory headlines andinfographics.

Part of the redesign is this column. In the past, NUran an anonymous editorial each week that represented “the views ofthe magazine.” But that is more of a newspaper trait than anewsmagazine's, which is more likely to feature the opinions andpersonalities of its senior editors. I'll be sounding off in thisspot most weeks.

As always, we're very interested in your comments. Please e-mailyour thoughts to me at [email protected]. We aim toplease.

Words Matter

In the news this week, I was disappointed to hear that theinsurance industry's long-time champion of tort reform, AmericanInternational Group Chairman Maurice Greenberg, had referred to hispolitical opponents as “terrorists.”

Speaking at the Chief Executives' Club of Boston, Mr. Greenbergwas reported to have said that battling tort reform adversaries islike fighting the war on terrorists. Although AIG declined tocomment on the remarks, the reaction from trial lawyer groups wasswift and furious, and understandably so.

No one has spoken out louder or more forcefully for tort reformthan Mr. Greenberg. His unfortunate remarks might have beenprompted by frustration with the glacial pace of reform at thefederal and state levels. His worst nightmare–former trial lawyerJohn Edwards–is a strong bet to be the Democrats' candidate forvice president.

Still, he was wrong to lump plaintiff attorneys with“terrorists” who have killed thousands of people, and who seek tomurder more Americans as well as our allies around the world.

Such inflammatory language obscures the many valid points of Mr.Greenberg's compelling argument, and could ultimately undermine hiscrusade for tort reform. After all, trial lawyers, never at a lossfor words, are sure to try to make certain that Mr. Greenberg eatshis, or that they at least come back to haunt him.

Sam Friedman
Editor-In-Chief

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, March 5, 2004.Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.