Editor’s Letter: Guard Duty

"Guard your readers’ time jealously." Although it’s been years, I can still hear an early mentor giving me those words of advice. We’ve incorporated that piece of wisdom in producing the new CableWorld, which we unveil with this issue. Graphic and editorial changes have been made to make CableWorld a more attractive, relevant and efficient read. Immediately you’ll notice the new logo, tag line and cover treatment. When you look inside the magazine you’ll see a new, more manageable layout that should make CableWorld easier and quicker to navigate. From an editorial perspective, we’ve listened to you when you told us about your interest in reading shorter pieces about cable’s competition, government regulation, technology, local ad sales and finance. As a result, we’re introducing one-page columns on those subjects from award-winning cable columnist Steve Effros and technology writer Michael Grebb. In future issues you’ll see columns about VOD and programming from veteran observer Andy Grossman, while telco expert Lane Cooper’s column will concentrate on the telco threat. We’ve also changed our people department by adding an honors section and have made our calendar and TV ratings pages more useful. To improve the flow and efficiency of our in-depth features, they’ll include more graphic elements, including apposite charts and tables. While we’ve changed our look and sharpened our editorial focus, we’ll maintain many departments you’ve told us you enjoy, including Meet the System, Meet the Operator, Meet the Programmer and columns from the two Pauls: Kagan and Maxwell. We’ll also maintain our editorial strategy of writing business-related and trend stories for cable operators and programmers, and post longer versions on our website. Our new tag line encapsulates it well: strategies, tactics, leaders. Let me close by thanking the readers and advertisers who’ve shared their opinions with us and encourage them to continue to do so. Your input has made redesigning this magazine a more iterative and, I hope, successful process. The job’s not done, so I welcome your comments on what we’ve accomplished and what we can do even better.